There are hundreds of scams for weight loss, health, disease cures, and fitness, but here are the current rotten stinkers:
10. Hoodia
The only kind that works must be eaten fresh. And it’s banned from export because it’s a protected flora. This weight-loss gimmick even comes with the #1 dead giveaway of scams everywhere: a heretofore undiscovered culture/tribe has finally, miraculously, revealed their secret, conveniently, to a white man who can’t wait to share this magical product with the world. Give me a break. That’s called a movie, not science. Here’s my expose.
9. Cellulite shoes
Again with the mysterious culture shrouded in lore. These don’t work - period. Though I do hear they help you fall and bruise your butt. Here’s a piece of my mind.
8. Cellulite creams
Sara frequently rants about this subject near and dear to many women’s hearts (or other parts). The best way to deal with cellulite - which isn’t curable no matter what the quacks like Mesunique claim - is to cut down on sugar, which stores itself in outer fat cells, and get some daily exercise. The more muscle and less fat you have, the smoother you look.
7. Colon cleansers
This needs a caveat. I am a huge fan of fiber - in addition to consuming 7-9 daily servings of produce, I take a psyllium fiber supplement and I think everyone should. The colon is important, delicate, and needs to stay in top shape. That said, it does not have a brain, and your body does not store fecal matter for years on end just waiting to finally be emptied by some miracle cleansing product. What comes out is just buildup of a few days, and anything beyond that is, well, b.s. This myth was actually completely debunked by surgeons a century ago. I am in favor of probiotics, such as those sold by Natren (a great company). So: hooray for fiber, yay for beneficial bacteria, no on the cleansers. Once in a while is no big deal, but your daily diet and a few basic supplements (psyllium, probiotics) are better.
6. Algae
Yes, this slimeball is abundant in protein. If you eat a truckload of it. Pay attention to serving size - often companies make claims about a product being extremely potent, but hope you’ll remain blissfully ignorant about how this potency relates to serving size. Supplementing with algae for aminos and other health benefits is about like relying on water for your vitamin and mineral needs. I like Perrier as much as the next guy, but I’ll stick with a multivitamin, thanks.
5. Male “enhancement” products
Guys, come on! Try enhancing intimacy and your skills instead.
4. Female “enhancement” products
Ladies, let it go. You don’t need these gimmicks - the folks selling them are just boobs (sorry). We men like you the way you are. If you still aren’t convinced, and don’t mind some PG-13 content, head on over to Bill Stieg’s blog at Men’s Health for the scoop on what we guys really think about the gals.
3. Bottled waters
Read my expose on mock waters. You cannot oxygenate or enhance water. You can’t penta it, hydro it, living cell it, or do anything else but drink it. Drink up, but don’t fall for the water hype.
2. Vegetable oils
Refined oils like canola, soybean and corn oil are free radical oil slicks that manage to get a bill of health from Uncle Sam. Lobbying gets the credit for that.
Avoid these oils like the plague, and go for healthy fats like organic butter, Smart Butter (rich in Omega-3’s), olive oil, avocado oil, or nut oils.
1. Alli (orlistat)
I’ve been ranting about Alli quite a bit. This ineffective, unproven, no-good OTC weight-loss pill offers nothing but side effects and oily spotting. Yes.
Mark Sisson
Marksdailyapple.com
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I have seen two movies on the big screen in five years, and the newest song on my iPod might be something by Steely Dan. I really, honestly don’t watch TV. (The occasional 10 year-old episode of America’s Funniest Videos is my no-longer-secret indulgence.) I have never seen Dancing with the Stars or Lost. And yet I know all about Lindsay Lohan’s same-sex alleged fiancée (!), Heather Locklear’s latest breakdown and the fact that seemingly-nice Izzy may indeed get McMurdered off of her hit show for selfishly withdrawing her name from the illustrious Emmy pool.
God I love my hair salon.
They’ve got stacks upon towering stacks of Us, People, Star and more. And I’ve got untold hours to see the buff and the beautiful in all of their screwed-up glory. (My last hair salon only carried Yoga Journal and Vegetarian Times. The hair cuts I got there were fabulous, the space serene and they had the best cup of coffee this side of Seattle. But come on.) Shirtless studs, relentless panty-flashers, celebrity cellulite–magnified a hundred and sixty fantastical times!–there’s just no telling what delight lurks behind the next page. Then there’s always that touching “human interest” story, and by “human interest” I mean a piece about someone who brutally murdered one or more of their loved ones, shocking every last member of their “quiet, old-fashioned” community. Sure, there’s the occasional hard-hitting political expose, such as the fascinating interview I read with Michelle Obama about… her campaign wardrobe. Or the John McCain Q&A in which he reveals he is… best-buds with George Clooney. (He’s definitely getting my vote now!)
My husband thinks I’m insane for getting my hair done every two weeks. But honestly, a girl’s gotta keep up.
By Jenna McCarthy
Author, The Parent Trip
Check it out at
www.jennamccarthy.com
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Time to Change Things Up!
Boredom. Monotony. Tedium. The same day after day. Dull as tombs. Nothing new under the sun. As fun as watching paint dry. While we hope these phrases don’t apply to any part of your life, we definitely hope they don’t describe, above all things, your workout! We’re half-kidding, of course. Nonetheless, variety is definitely the proverbial (and, we’d argue, essential) spice of a fitness program.
Of course, there’s the issue of motivation. If you’re schlepping yourself to the gym with the look of the “Time to make the donuts” guy, it’s time to shake things up a bit. And, wouldn’t you know it, research out of the University of Florida in Gainesville suggests the same. The study divided 114 men and women into three groups. The first group was given specific exercise instructions for their workouts that incorporated frequent variety. The second group was also given instructions for their workouts, but they were the same for each session. Researchers did not give the third group any guidelines regarding workout schedule or specific exercises. The study period lasted eight weeks, and those in the first two groups were instructed to exercise three times a week throughout the duration of the study. The group with the best retention and most reported satisfaction was – as I open the envelope – the first group that incorporated both structure and variety.
Variety, as we intend it here, is about more than momentary whim. The best kind of workout variety is a diverse and challenging program with clear options that you can adopt wholesale or configure to your needs and abilities. Not only does this kind of “menu” offer helpful structure and a more enjoyable mix of activity, it can also provide a more extensive, truly well-rounded fitness program. Sure, we talk ad nauseum about optimum health and fitness (‘cause we love this stuff), and what we mean by optimum isn’t targeted, restricted, narrow and incomplete. Solid, all around fitness, by necessity, requires substantial variety.
For these reasons, we like the Crossfit approach as it encompasses all fitness domains and an infinite diversity of exercise approaches. The idea behind a complete workout, as the Crossfit folks explain so well, is to “encourage creative and continuously varied compositions that tax physiological functions against every realistically conceivable combination of stressors.” With everything from weight sets to medicine balls to pirouettes to kips and cartwheels, the Crossfit philosophy intends to work it all and work it all in. They offer an immense list of exercises and demonstrations. We’d suggest taking a look and laying out some new options you’d like to try.
Ideally, your workout routine should change almost daily. Though that concept might seem a bit intimidating to someone who’s just established a solid routine, don’t feel you need to “re”- build Rome in a day. And it doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t have a core set of activities to work from, but let those core exercises make up a part of your workout, not the full extent of your total program. Look at how you can incorporate variety into the course of a week’s program, and go from there. Variety isn’t just the natural antidote to boredom; it’s the best remedy for the inevitable plateau we hit when we stay on the same track too long.
Whether your workout leaves you feeling blasé these days or you feel you can kick it up a notch and challenge yourself anew, we’d suggest laying out a new outline with a fresh set of goals. It’s one thing to be a man/woman with a plan, but quite another to be half-consciously stuck in a self-limiting, numbing rut.
So, we’ll turn it over to you now. How do you keep your fitness routine from becoming rank? What does variety mean for your workout approach?
Marksdailyapple.com
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However satisfying the activities, busy schedules wreck havoc on family mealtime. To accommodate hectic lifestyles, the average family spends $2,000 each year on outside dining. Unless you are vigilant, family meals can easily disappear from your routine. August is designated National Family Meal Month to remind families to break bread together each day.
Multiple studies confirm that families who eat together enjoy better physical and mental health. In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, Steven Covey affirms the importance of eating together. The daily ritual benefits children nutritionally and emotionally. Because kids eat more healthfully, their weight is better managed. (Children typically consume twice as many calories eating a meal out than eating at home and may consume their daily allotment in one meal.) Portions are more likely to be monitored and snacking is minimized. Teens who enjoy family meals are less likely to smoke, drink alcohol or use marijuana and other drugs. Family meals also enhance academic performance—children who live in families where meals are a nightly tradition earn better grades.
In her book The Surprising Power of Family Meals: How Eating Together Makes us Smarter, Stronger, Mariam Weinstein asserts that children need family meals as a time-out from their busy lives—a time to build connections and recharge their emotional batteries in a safe setting.
But time to shop, prepare and clean up after meals is a scarce commodity, particularly when school starts. Yet creative planning for nightly suppers can trim your budget and enrich your family life. Here are three tips (FIT) to bring back family meals:
F: Fill your freezer with cooked-ahead meals and fill your cupboard with ready-made sauces or marinades. Double your entrée recipes so you have a freezer full of meals ready to serve with a minimum of effort. Take advantage of prepared, nutritious foods at the supermarket, such as roasted chicken or cooked prawns. Adding a baked potato or brown rice, green beans and a salad completes the meal.
I: Involve everyone in meal preparation. Let children help decide the menu, set the table, prepare the food and clean up. Let small children become tasters. Older kids can follow recipes and become chef for the evening. Invest in a slow cooker and a breadmaker. Slow cooking allows you to use less expensive cuts of meat, and a breadmaker will give your family wholesome bread for pennies. Swap recipes with neighbors and friends.
T: Take time to share the day’s events as you sit around the table. Make eating together each night a treasured family tradition. Turn off the television and connect with each other through a dynamic exchange of ideas and feelings. Take advantage of teachable moments to share your values and insights with your children. Begin each meal with a moment of appreciation—for the food, for family and for the cook’s efforts. Teach manners by saying please and thank you, passing serving bowls and waiting until everyone is seated to begin eating.
The family that eats together stays together. When we share a centuries-old tradition of breaking bread together, we nourish not only our bodies but our minds and spirits as well. Establishing a nightly ritual of sharing stories about the day’s events creates priceless memories and a valuable sense of belonging. Aren’t these benefits worth making time for?
By Carole Carson, Author
From Fat to Fit: Turn Yourself into a Weapon of Mass Reduction
530 478-5709
530 687-6301 EFax
carolecarson1@earthlink.net
www.fromfat2fit.com
Author of From Fat to Fit
fromfat2fit.com
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It’s been several decades since Bobby McFerrin (Yes, Bobby McFerrin, not Bob Marley) wrote the hit song “Don’t Worry be Happy” and yet we still can’t, well, quit worrying and get happy.
Whether it’s the kids, work, or a to-do list that simply won’t quit, the reality is there are hundreds of sources of stress in our lives and very few real ways (short of hiring a personal assistant, and even that’s no guarantee!) to deal with them…or are there?
The following are a list of our favorite de-stressing tips – so kick back, relax and feel the stress melt away.
1. Get Things Done
Pick up milk, purchase stamps, update your checkbook, turn in the forms for the kids’ summer camp…and the list goes on, so much so that sometimes even the thought of having to tackle your mental to-do list is more intimidating than actually just getting it done! Unfortunately, in these instances, you have no choice but to take care of things. To make it more manageable (and remove the stress from the situation) transfer your mental list into a more tangible medium, either in the form of a written list or an electronic Outlook or Blackberry reminder list. Not only will writing everything down free-up much-needed mental space, it’ll also give you a visual place to check off tasks as you complete them.
2. Learn to Say No
With so many ways to say no, it’s a wonder we ever say yes!
Feeling overloaded? Then the last thing you need to do is agree to bake a batch of brownies for the soccer fund raiser. Yet, for many of us, and women in particular, saying no is simply not an option. However, it should be noted that saying that you just don’t have the capacity to take on an extra chore can be a huge stress reliever and free up time for the really important things (like an impromptu kick-around with your little soccer star!) When declining an offer, be firm. If necessary, let the person making the request know that you can’t fit it into a schedule and, if guilt overcomes you, offer to do something else or take on the task once your week is a little less hectic.
3. Work it Out
It has long been reported that exercise can reduce stress, with one 2003 study suggesting that short, intense bursts of exercise are most effective at reducing stress and stress-related diseases (such as cardiovascular disease). While this is definitely good news for those of us who are feeling a time crunch, it should be noted that other forms of exercise, such as hiking, pilates and yoga, can also help quieten the mind and help you unwind.
4. Peace and Quiet
If you’re the type of person who whips themselves into a frenzy planning a “relaxing” weekend away, perhaps it’s time to refocus your de-stressing activities to include something a little more manageable. Next time the going gets rough, retreat to a quiet room (or shut the door to the office), close your eyes, breathe deeply and think positive thoughts. Think you still need to split from your everyday environment? Consider a trip to a spa for a soothing massage or taking a morning to embark on a hike, spend some time on the beach or otherwise relax…whatever it takes to melt the stress away.
5. Natural Sunlight
Everyone feels a little happier when the sun is shining, and the reasons aren’t just psychological. According to several studies, the less natural light there is in a room, the more stressed (not to mention sleepy!) a person will feel. In fact, a study (PDF) by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that workers were more productive and reported higher rates of job satisfaction when exposed to natural light. Stuck in cubicle-dom? Make an appointment each day (yes, that’s right, put it on that Outlook calendar) to get outside, take a stroll, and absorb a couple of rays! Trust us, you’ll feel better for it!
6. Supplementation
While the answer to your stress can rarely be found at the bottom of a bottle (both of the alcoholic and prescription variety), sometimes supplementation can prove beneficial. For example, a supplement that contains golden root (or rhodiola rosea) has stress reducing effects that can improve your mental outlook as well as give you the energy boost you need to tackle the issue at hand.
7. Phone a Friend
Popularized in the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” for contestants in a bind, phoning a friend can actually reduce stress. In a 2004 study conducted by researchers at Tokyo University, it was determined that “social buffering may accelerate recovery from stress and change your experience of it” as well as speed recovery. Now granted, the experiment was conducted with rats, but a second study conducted by researchers at UCLA showed that following the death of the spouse, women with a strong social network “were more likely to survive the experience without any new physical impairments or permanent loss of vitality.” Our verdict? Perhaps it’s time to buddy up!
8. Music Man
Chalk another one up for the benefits of music – turns out it can help alleviate stress too! In a 2001 study conducted by researchers at Adelaide University in Australia, it was determined that organ music “significantly reduced a range of negative emotions commonly experienced during Christmas, such as tension, depression, anger and fatigue.” Our inclination? If it works during the super-stressful holiday season, it’ll work year round! Now go rock out!
9. Just Do it!
Although sex is probably the last thing on your mind when you’re feeling stressed, sometimes getting down is the best way to get over it! In fact, according to a study by Canadian researchers, when bacteria get in to hot water (literally…but it’s a stressor for them!), it activates a “sex-inducer” gene that ups the likelihood of reproduction. Need further proof? A 2006 study suggests that sex can reduce the stress and anxiety experienced prior to public speaking and that “greater frequency of intercourse is associated with greater benefits.”
10. Glass Half Full?
Well, perhaps not this optimistic.
We’ve all heard the term “making a mountain out of a molehill,” but when you’re in the midst of an existential crisis, sometimes it is difficult to take a step back and keep your cool. However, in the face of a stressor or other adversity it is important to ask yourself a few questions: Will this matter next week? How about next month? If I knew I was going to die in a week, would this be something I would want to spend this minute of my remaining time on? Is what I am basing my feelings on a fact, or is it an assumption? Sometimes just asking yourself these questions can help you gain perspective on the issue, so much so that before you know it, you’ve developed a solution!
marksdailyapple.com
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By Dr. Joseph Mercola with Rachael Droege
Even if your lifestyle is currently conducive to heart disease, for example you eat mostly fast food and are sedentary, overweight and heavily stressed, you can actually reverse the process of heart disease by replacing your bad habits with good ones.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, but it doesn’t have to be this way. A recent study published in the journal of the American Medical Association found that about 90 percent of people who had a heart attack also had at least one major risk factor for heart disease such as cigarette smoking, high cholesterol, diabetes or high blood pressure.
Obviously, although it may take some work, cigarette smoking is something that can be stopped. But did you know that high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes can also be reversed? They can--and you don’t need dangerous statins or other drugs to do it.
Contrary to what you hear on the news, it is not the saturated fat in the foods we eat that is causing all of this heart disease, but rather, and far more, it is the excess carbohydrates from our starch- and sugar-laden diet that is making people fat and unhealthy, and leading to epidemic levels of a host of diseases such as diabetes and later, heart disease.
The bottom line is this: Americans need to reduce their intake of grains, including corn-based foods, and all sweets and potatoes, dramatically. Any meal or snack high in carbohydrates generates a rapid rise in blood glucose and then insulin to compensate for the rise in blood sugar. The insulin released from eating too many carbohydrates promotes fat and makes it more difficult for the body to lose fat, and excess weight is one of the major contributors to heart disease. You can find out more about the impact of grains on health in my book, Dr. Mercola's Total Health Program. Also, check out my nutrition plan to get your diet on the right track.
It’s important not to get caught up in the "no-fat" craze. Some saturated fats are necessary and beneficial to human health. For instance, coconut oil, a medium-chain saturated fat, can actually help you to lose weight, lower cholesterol, improve diabetic conditions and reduce your risk of heart disease.
Omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in oily fish and fish oils, also protect against heart disease. Studies have shown that omega-3 works by preventing the buildup of fatty deposits in the arteries. One of the best ways to make sure you have enough omega-3 in your diet is by regularly consuming fish oil. It’s important to use a high-quality oil to ensure that the product is fresh and purified of mercury and other toxins. Carlson’s fish oil is the best brand I’ve come across; you can look for it in your local health food store or in our online store.
Vitamin K, which can be found in ample quantities in leafy green vegetables and natto, a fermented soy product, and, to a lesser extent, in eggs, is another necessary component of an anti-heart disease diet. Vitamin K helps to prevent hardening of the arteries, which is a common factor in coronary artery disease and heart failure. If you feel you are unable to obtain enough vitamin K from fresh vegetables, then you might want to consider the form of vitamin K that we are now carrying in our store.
Of course, exercise is a great way to strengthen your heart and cardiovascular system. Even low- to moderate-intensity exercise, such as walking or gardening, can have great benefits.
However, the most common contributing factor to heart disease--and for that matter, cancer--is unresolved emotional stresses. Anger, stress, guilt, sadness--really any emotion that doesn’t make you feel good--can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Even the best diet in the world is not likely to overcome the damage created by lingering emotional stresses.
So how can you resolve your emotional issues and get rid of negative feelings? My favorite way is with the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which involves tapping your body’s energy meridians while voicing positive affirmations. This works to clear the "short-circuit"--the emotional block--from your body's bioenergy system. Although this may sound strange, I encourage you to try it for yourself. You can review my free 25-page EFT manual for more information.
For further help with stress relief and relaxation, you may want to consider the Insight audio CD. While EFT eliminates negative emotions that sabotage health and replaces them with positives, the Insight CD does a phenomenal job of enhancing and expanding emotional, mental and spiritual capabilities--and ultimately health.
Remember, you don’t have to get heart disease. Regardless of what stage your health is at right now, you can make major improvements by changing your lifestyle to one that promotes health rather than discourages it.
Mercola.com
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should probably just be talking about eating well and exercise, but I end up writing these entries from home so I just write about what's on my heart at the moment. I realized that my husband is very much like an elephant. No you perverted minds out there not physically, but in a "I go at it alone" way. They meet up with the female and kids once or twice a year and then after they connect, off they go. Into the jungle, alone. As women we tend to think men should feel and act like us. Normal. I have been with my husband for almost 13 years and he is a good man. He loves me, and is pretty diligent about showing it. Laird is a great Dad, and loves his daughters. He works hard, isn't perfect, but always strives to be better, and is painfully honest. What am I saying? I was looking at him today and realized that he as a man has an eternal struggle of wanting to be free (out in nature, with the boys, or whatever the particular males calling) and wanting to be at home with his family. Part of it is nature, and yes part of it is being born with TESTOSTERONE. I'm bringing this up because it's been something I have started to realize and not take personally. Laird and I have had the opportunity to talk about it, and it's given me more insight into the male path. I have found it so critical to continue to focus on the things I can control. Believe me another person is not one of them. If I feel frustrated or hurt by my husbands’ actions, rather than being quick to anger or take it to heart, I'm trying to watch and understand. What ends up happening is we avoid a lot of friction and drama, and through the years we have had more exchanges about what life is like for each of us. Yes, we are a couple and a family, but he and I will both go through things in this life that aren't a reflection of how much we love or appreciate the other. So, yes, it is about ways to be healthier, and all I can say is ladies don't take it personal, and believe me you will lower that stress
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By Dr. Ben Lerner with Comments Below from Dr. Mercola
The most significant diseases we face today are, for the most part, self-perpetuated. In other words, if we get sick, chances are it was our own fault.
Places like the American Heart Association, The Texas University Cancer Prevention Institute, the National Institute of Health, and The Center for Disease Control are finding that the only effective treatment for prevention or recovery of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes is lifestyle. As much as 85 percent of these conditions can be prevented through properly caring for your body.
Prevention is always the best cure.
Establishing health can seem complicated, but it’s really quite simple. A patient of mine, just had an article written about him titled "100 Isn’t Even A Speed Bump." To know him is to know that he’s 100 and going strong. He credits avoiding medication, eating several healthy meals a day (taking careful consideration of what he eats), seeing the chiropractor regularly, riding his bike every day and working in the yard. That is living your life the way God intended, which always equals reaching your potential. (Science and the Bible both point to the fact that life expectancy is 120 years.)
Over the past several years science has accumulated a wealth of data about turning your life and health around. What has been proven is that the body has an amazing, God-given capacity to heal itself.
As Dr. Jeffery Koplan, director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says, "At any time you decide to improve your behavior and make lifestyle changes, they make a difference from that point on. Maybe not right away. It’s like slamming on the brakes. You do need a certain skid distance."
In addition to your blue-printed Mercola nutritional program, you need to participate in a consistent thoughtful movement program otherwise known as exercise. Research on exercise shows that it creates a minimum of an additional 50 percent boost in your immune system’s chance of preventing cancer and causes improved function in all metabolic activities. On the contrary, avoiding thoughtful movement can produce the opposite effect, or poorer function and decreased immunity.
All disease and symptoms are related to poor body function, physiological imbalance and lowered immunity. On the contrary, exercise improves body function, helps to balance metabolic activity and significantly boosts immunity. Unfortunately, for many exercise is more of an annual event. At last check only one out of every four Americans were found to exercise regularly enough to improve or even maintain their current level of health.
The three most common excuses for not exercising are:
• Time
• Boredom
• Pain
There is great news here! It turns out that the best kind of exercise is the kind that doesn’t hurt or take that long. Thus, you might even like it.
The Power of 10 Minutes
One of the most encouraging discoveries in the history of exercise was when they found the power of 10 minutes. In as little as 10 minutes your body begins to function better and increase metabolic processes with benefits that can last as much as 24 hours.
Additionally, 10 minutes twice a day--a morning power walk while praying or meditating followed by an evening bike ride with the family--has all the benefits of 20 straight minutes. Anyone can find 10 minutes.
*To determine your most effective--pain-free--pace, calculate your fat burning zone using the following formula:
1. Find your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR):
Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) = 220 - Your Age
2. 2. Find your Fat Utilization Rate:
Fat Utilization Rate (FUR) = 55 - 75 percent of your MHR
Example Calculation for Determining Moving Zone Heart Rates
Age: 40
MHR: 220 -- 40 = 180 BPM
Fat Burning Rates:
FUR = 55 -- 75 percent of 180 = 99 -- 135 BPM
You can find your heartbeat simply by placing your fingers lightly but firmly over the inside of your wrist or on your neck just below the angle of your jaw. (Caution: Do not put too much pressure on the neck; this can slow down the heart, make you dizzy, make you pass out, and can be dangerous for anyone with potential blockages of blood vessels in the neck.) Another way to arrive at this number is to put your hand over your heart to count the number of beats or simply use a heart monitor.
Spend 10 minutes or more a day at your fat burning rate and you will enjoyably, safely, comfortably, and easily feel better, trim down and enhance health. I always say that the reason my patients who exercise regularly and stay very active live into their 90s and 100s is, "It’s hard to hit a moving target."
Keep moving!
Caution: If you have any questions or concerns about your exercise program, your target heart rate, or if you feel ill in any way while performing exercise, consult your physician.
Dr. Ben Lerner is the New York Times Best-Selling author of Body by God: The Owner’s Manual For Maximized Living. He was a 1996 and 2000 Olympic Team Chiropractor, nutritionist, and strength and conditioning trainer. To learn more about his breakthrough strategies for making exercise safe, easy and effective or to find a qualified Chiropractor near you go to thebodybygod.com.
I met Dr. Lerner early in 2004 and am convinced he is an authentic leader in the health field. He is incredibly fit and nearly made it into the Olympics as a wrestler. His passion is to improve other people’s health, and through his work with thousands of patients he discovered a proven pathway to build health instead of merely treating disease, which is a major part of the vision of this Web site.
His new book, Body By God: The Owner’s Manual for Maximized Living, is an excellent resource for anyone looking to improve their health through the following principles:
• Maximizing Your Life
• Nutrition
• Exercise
• Stress Management
• Time Management
Because Dr. Lerner is an athlete he focuses much of the book on very specific exercises you can use to improve your physical health in a minimal amount of time.
Dr. Lerner will be a regular contributor to the newsletter, so keep an eye out for more of his insightful articles in future editions.
Mercola.com
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By Gaby Boehmer
Understanding How to Care Without It Becoming a Source of Your Stress
Our need to feel loved and cared for and to give love and care to others seems to be an innate human quality programmed into our DNA. Feeling loved and cared for gives us a feeling of security and self-worth. Caring for someone else gives us a sense of wholeness — it’s an extension of our love. As good as it feels to care for someone or something, for many people it can also become a source of stress and emotional chaos that leaves them feeling mentally and emotionally drained. Which arises the question, is it possible to care too much?
In most dictionaries the first definition of care is a burdened state of mind; worry; concern. It takes several lines before some dictionaries get around to defining care as “to feel love for, to look after, provide for, attend to.” Many people feel that if they're not worrying or obsessing over things it must mean that they’re not caring enough. This need to worry or obsess is an "emotional habit" that operates under the seemingly healthy guise of attention, sentiment and sympathy toward people or situations, but often can end up causing disharmony, depression and a spiral of destructive stress.
Psychologist Deborah Rozman, co-author of Transforming Anxiety: The HeartMath Solution for Overcoming Fear and Worry and Creating Serenity, says, “Emotional habits keep people locked into a loop of anxiety and even depression. One of the habits most of us can relate to is called ‘overcare.’ Overcare is a common emotional habit that causes us anxiety, worry and stress.”
The term “overcare” was coined by Doc Childre, founder of the HeartMath® system and co-author of numerous books, including Transforming Stress, Transforming Anxiety, Transforming Anger, and Transforming Depression. Doc describes overcare as that which happens when the mind and emotions cross the line of balanced care and get too attached to and bogged down with whomever or whatever you’re caring about. Once you become too entangled in another's web and realize your energy is drained from overcare and over-attachment, it’s easy to be seduced into blaming and resenting the people or issues you care about.
Examples of overcare:
• A mother who equates love with constant worry and fret about her children.
• A citizen concerned about those affected by a natural disaster becomes inflamed and judgmental towards government or public agencies’ actions.
• A spouse who wants to reassure their partner that they love them ends up stifling their partner with attention.
• An employee fearful of possible layoffs feeds his anxiety with constant negative projections and assumptions about the future.
• A son’s concern for his elderly father leads to continuous arguments with his siblings about how to best care for their father.
In all of these examples, what starts out as a genuine and balanced intention to care gets muddled with over-attachment and over-identity and leads to overcare for the person or situation. The original caring intentions instead become emotionally draining to all parties and often can create a negative effect.
Examples of the effects of overcare:
• The mother's children feel suffocated and distance themselves from her.
• The concerned citizen drains personal energy by harboring these judgments, and her resentment toward the system prevents her from taking a proactive approach to helping the people affected.
• The smothered spouse craves personal space and the couple separates or even divorces.
• The employee’s constant anxiety prevents him from sleeping and jacks up his blood pressure, while his assumptions fuel rumors among colleagues, creating a toxic environment of angst and stress.
• The family’s arguments put even more strain on them, making it more difficult to come to a family consensus, and causes the father to feel that he has become a burden.
Examples like these are all too common and happen more than we realize. It’s not that we care too much, but more that we don’t know how to manage our care. We think that somehow if we anguish over something enough we’ll get a creative solution or we’ll somehow conjure up the productive motivation we need to take action and resolve something. Worry and anxiety do not solve problems. It is when we finally release the worry, decide to sleep on it, or talk with a friend who helps us let the worry go that the answers finally come to us.
Dr. Rozman says, “Balanced care is not some placid state that lacks drive and passion. It’s quite the opposite, actually. Balanced care is dynamic, it is a place in your heart that allows you to flex through stress and stay resilient under pressure.”
Wendy Warner, MD, Founder and Medical Director of Medicine in Balance, LLC and President of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, says: “Overcare is often disguised as angst, worry, concern, sympathy, or even sentiment, and can lead to stress-related health issues such as headaches, backaches, high blood pressure, digestive issues, and hormonal imbalances. Although both men and women can experience overcare and related physical complaints, our society tends to ‘train’ and expect women to be caregivers, so they tend to be more prone to overcaring about people or situations.”
As we learn to recognize when we’re starting to get over-identified, over-attached, over-expectant or overzealous, we become more sensitive to our own inner signals. This sensitivity allows us to make internal adjustments and get back to that balanced place inside where the original care started.
Personal Evaluation
Dr. Rozman suggests trying this personal evaluation: “Listen to and watch your feelings as you consider these questions. Notice any changes in your feelings as you answer the questions.”
• In what areas is care adding to your energy and reducing your stress? Why?
• In what areas is care draining your energy and giving you stress? What do you overcare about in the situation?
• Are you over-identified with someone or some issue?
• Are you over-attached to a particular outcome?
• Which of the common masks of overcare – sentiment, attachment, expectation, or sympathy – best describe what you experience?
Rozman says, “This evaluation will help you recognize where you have overcare. The first step to getting back to your balanced care is knowing when you’ve crossed over into a state of overcare.”
In their book Transforming Anxiety, Deborah Rozman and Doc Childre provide tools and techniques that will show you how to release the anxiety and worry associated with emotional habits like overcare. Letting go of the overcare will give you the inner security and strength you need to get back to the balanced care where you can tap into your creativity and passion.
Tools to Ease Your Overcare
The following tools from HeartMath are designed to help ease out any stressful emotions and the emotional drain that result from overcare.
Notice and Ease™
In order to shift out of overcare you first need to identify what you’re feeling. By slowing down the emotional energy running through your system, you’re better able to identify whether it’s worry, anxiety, hurt, etc.
1. Notice and admit what you’re feeling.
2. Try to name the feeling.
3. Tell yourself to e-a-s-e – as you gently focus your attention in the area of your heart, relax as you breathe, and e-a-s-e the stress out.
Attitude Breathing®
Attitude Breathing is a tool to help you shift out of an emotional draining state and back to a balance state of care. By practicing this you will learn to clear and replace the overcare with a more balance and positive emotion and gain a more intelligent perspective.
1. Recognize an unwanted attitude: a feeling or attitude that you want to change. This could be overcare, anxiety, self-judgment, guilt, anger, anything.
2. Identify and breathe a replacement attitude: Select a positive attitude, then breathe the feeling of that new attitude slowly and casually through your heart area. Do this for a while to anchor the new feeling.
Based on 17 years of research, HeartMath has also developed unique technologies that give you objective feedback by measuring your heart rhythms. Using tools such as the Notice and Ease and Attitude Breathing in conjunction with the emWave Personal Stress Reliever® or the emWave® PC Stress Relief System will give you the added benefit of real-time feedback - helping to quickly guide you back to a balanced mental and emotional state.
Free Resources
HeartMath offers a number of free resources that can help you release the stress and anxiety of overcare and get back to a balanced care.
• Stress Survey: a free survey tool designed to help you understand how various aspects of your life impact your levels of stress and well-being.
• Personal Tracker: a free web application to track five important aspects of well-being.
• Webinar downloads on topics like transforming stress and anxiety.
• Register for upcoming webinars on various topics related to mental and emotional well-being.
For video viewing, click here.
Copyright © 2008 HeartMath. Since 1991 HeartMath has been dedicated to decoding the underlying mechanics of stress. HeartMath is internationally recognized for their solutions to transform the stress of change and uncertainty, and bring coherence and renewed energy into people’s lives. Research and clinical studies conducted by HeartMath have examined emotional physiology, heart-brain interactions, and the physiology of learning and performance. Through their research they have demonstrated the critical link
between emotions, heart function, and cognitive performance. HeartMath’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, and Preventive Cardiology, as well as business journals such as Harvard Business Review and Leadership Excellence. HeartMath’s organizational clients include Mayo Health System, NASA, BP, Duke University Health System, Stanford Business School, Redken, Kaiser Permanente, Boeing, and Cisco Systems, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals around the world. To learn more about HeartMath, go to www.heartmath.com.
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I admit, like everyone else, I have Olympic fever. As a woman in my later thirties, you won't be surprised to learn that my hero is 41-year-old Dara Torres who is the mother of a 2-year-old girl and she is an insanely fit swimmer.
Why is she so inspiring? For me, it's not because at her age (love that phrase) she is going against all the odds by competing with women half her age. It's because Dara is a huge reminder to not buy into all the rules that surround us, rules and limitations that most of us have chosen to live with, in a silent life contract.
Do any of these sound familiar?
"I can't do that. I'm 40 and I have two children, so I'm too old."
"I'm a mom, so I can't do that."
"We have been married for 10 years, so we don't do that anymore."
"My body has been like this for the past 15 years, so I can't accomplish that."
The list of things in this invisible contract goes on and on.
Where do these rules come from? When the Pilgrims came across and met with the Indians, did they all sit down and write up some social protocol document?
How about if we all just write our own creed to live by?
• Support yourself and surround your life with positive people. Stay away from the “nay sayers”, and stick with the people who are trying to fight the fight.
• Read books and turn off the TV. Keep your mind and perspective young, and don't let your own thoughts get too clouded by watching too much television. Television can really inhibit the process of original thinking.
• Stay healthy and keep moving. A strong body helps with a strong mind. Not to mention the fact that keeping your "vehicle" healthy helps you have an enhanced life experience.
• Ask yourself, "Why not?" We are so afraid to try something new for fear of being silly or inappropriate. When this happens ask yourself, "Why not?"
Life is short so why not go for the gold every day? Winning and accomplishing is a lot of fun, but the long lasting impact of doing, and trying, is infinite. After all, who do you want defining the rules of your life? YOU or the forces around you?
Gabby
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