Have you Found the key to your health success?
Category / Stress Relief
Thoughts on Weight Loss
What are your thoughts on weight loss/weight management? Do you see weight loss as a goal, or as an outcome from healthy decisions? Perhaps the old adage of “You are what you eat” could also be “You are what you think.” Many of us, myself included, tend to sabotage ourselves rather than support ourselves with our thoughts, beliefs, and the way we treat ourselves.
My Facebook Page this week is focusing on different thoughts and patterns that different people have. Some may apply to you, others may not. I know as I looked down the list there are some who apply to me more frequently than others. Why the focus on thoughts? Continue reading →
I Believe…
What ever we believe becomes our reality. If we believe we are unworthy, we work to make ourselves unworthy. HOWEVER, If we believe we can change, if we believe we are worth our own time and investment, then we become such and those around us begin to taken notice.
A friend of mine often says, “I am on a Journey” and I think I’ve actually opened the door to that vehicle and am beginning to get in. The journey has to do with being mindful, deliberate, and gentle in all that I do. Continue reading →
Magnesium for Muscle Cramps
Thank you to Heather Lloyd LMT for your question regarding Magnesium for muscle cramps and specifically, how do I find a supplement that won’t work against me with my IBS. Here is what I have found in my research. Continue reading →
Working to change my own stress habits.
Thank you, Madeline Ebelini!
Here’s the back story.
Today, I drove my 5 year old daughter and I the 35 miles to the drag strip to watch daddy race. We’ve been having some vibration issues in the Yukon, but had been unable to diagnose the cause.
It rained. They cancelled the race, and may of us were standing around, discussing the cancellation when a friend looked at the rear tire of my vehicle. BIG bubble on the rear passenger tire. Here’s where my stress kicked in. I knew I had to drive my vehicle the 35 miles home with my 5 yr old in the back. 
Continue reading →
Our largest organ is the biggest entry of poisons to our body.
In the last week, it seems, we have been bombarded about information regarding the toxins we put into our bodies on a daily basis. Last week, I presented an informational health minute to my Rotary club on personal care products and the poisons contained in many of the common choices. Our skin is the biggest organ in our body. (Although I have had a few guys in college try to tell me otherwise.) 
When we put anything on our skin, it is immediately absorbed and within 90 seconds it begins entering our blood stream. This is why so many different drugs are now being offered in patch form, it is an easy delivery system.
So why the big deal about our personal care products? The cosmetics/personal care products industry is SELF REGULATED. This means the FDA doesn’t care what they put in the products we use. They don’t ask, they don’t check, it doesn’t matter. The industry as a whole has set up ITS OWN governing body that sets ITS OWN limits on what can or cannot be used in products. So they set a level of an ingredient, that has been deemed a toxin and recommend that companies not go over that level.
The average woman uses 9-14 personal care products on a daily basis. The average man uses 7-9. The visual above shows us some examples. Lets say the products YOU CHOOSE are conservative and only have 85% of that thresh hold for a certain toxin. You use 8 products a day.
That’s 6.8 TIMES the amount of that toxin that what has been deemed “safe” by the people making it. Now, add the other chemicals from each of those products as well and you quickly discover the amount of stress being placed on your body on a daily basis, AND YOU HAVEN’T EVEN LEFT HOME!
I feel blessed to have found alternatives to these products. Alternatives that don’t include any of these harmful ingredients. If you, or someone you know is interested in alternatives, please contact me. I am happy to discuss your needs with you.
If you would like further information on this issue, here is another web article to check out.
- http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/untested-chemicals-beauty-products-16247696?tab=9482931§ion=1206835&playlist=1363742
- http://www.greenamerica.org/pubs/greenamerican/articles/maraprmay2011/nine-toxins-to-avoid-in-personal-care-products.cfm
- http://safecosmetics.org/article.php?id=414
There’s enough stress out there, without my adding to it first thing in the morning. Begin to reduce the taxing toxins from your life and begin seeing your health improve.
Is it the Stress, or the habits we have to cope?
It has been very well documented that stress and those with exorbitant amounts of stress in their life have a greater chance of acquiring high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, obesity, and many other dis-eases. A couple of very intelligent friends of mine once asked me, “Is your life REALLY that stressful, or have you gotten into the habit of allowing the stress to consume you?”
I wasn’t sure what they meant, or if they were crazy at that point.
My entire life, I have enjoyed a full life; on a schedule to fit it all in. I don’t like to sit still, I want to be moving and doing at full speed. I’ll have time to rest, when I die, right?
Enter an entirely new thought, a new concept for me. (I am still using my calendar and my schedule, but the stress is different – for me.)
We live our lives surrounded by stressors. Some of which we can choose to eliminate, some of which we cannot eliminate. We live our lives surrounded by other people. Some of which we can choose to eliminate, some of which we cannot. 
The difference comes when we decide to look at it differently from within.
I have begun working to implement meditation into my daily life. Not an easy task when I’ve already added 30 minutes in the morning for bible study, my five year old is waking up earlier, I am training for a 60-mile walk, I have a home to maintain, Rotary, Christian Chamber, a loving husband, my personal business, Bible study classes… and life.
Many times things come up and I get frustrated and stressed because it interrupts my busy schedule. I get stressed because His plan, or someone else’s plan blocks my schedule. Now, yesterday, an epiphany.
The story:
I was sitting on the deck in the middle of a slough being led through a meditation. The birds are singing, the wind is blowing my hair in my face, children scream and laugh in the distance, I cough, a car squeals its tires, a plane flies over… How am I supposed to meditate when………… ahhhhhh It’s the experience, its all a part of the experience. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing, it just has to be a part of the thing. I realized I can just accept it as a part of the experience. I don’t have to judge it as right or wrong, I can just allow it to be.
Thank you, Paula English, Carolyn Wightman, and Madeline Ebelini, for opening my eyes and allowing me to begin to LET GO and just let some of life happen. I don’t have to give everything up and allow everything, but I can determine what I can not change and allow it to be a part of the experience.
I have heard others say that just 30 seconds of true meditation a day can drastically improve your health. I am committing to 10 minutes a day for the rest of my life. I understand that I am not perfect and at times something may interfere, but I don’t have to beat myself up for missing it, just look at the experience as part of life and go on.
You can do the same. I am not saying it is easy. I committed to an 8 week class to understand it, not even really knowing what it was about before I began, but praising God I was lead to it, just as I enrolled with a business coach to improve that part of my life. If you would like to know more about how to find a MBSR class near you or to discuss other ways to reduce the effects of stress on your body and health, feel free to contact me.
Thank you for joining me today.
Your body needs time to De-Stress, let it.
Recently, a girlfriend and I decided to make Friday mornings our time to de-stress. Our time to recharge, bounce ideas off each other, soak up some vitamin D and let life, just be. Here is a tale of today’s not so typical trip to the beach. The moral of the story is, take it, as it is, but not too seriously, and find the joy in all situations! If you have the time to read it, enjoy our adventure from today.
Today, was a day that we really needed it, and we TOOK it. Life didn’t give me a stress free morning, I took it. Let me explain. On the way to the beach, I carefully merged into the next lane, already occupied by a beautiful blonde lady with a very foul mouth. I tried to apologize, but I don’t think she could hear me through the rolled up windows and over her 4-letter words. (Very much, my bad) No one injured, no cars damaged or touched, all is well, my heart raced for a couple of seconds, then I let it go.
We continued to the beach, the clouds were dark, but nothing more than a sprinkle hit the windshield. We got out, had GOOD parking, and walked our 1/4 mile trek down the beach to our favorite spot. Momma got things set up while CLB got a good start on her mud pie. It began to sprinkle…
CLB curled up between my feet and knees and hunkered down over my thigh, while I curled over her to protect her from the stinging rain, and attempted to keep her warm. All was well, she was protected from the rain and was warm, then 3 kayakers (obviously as crazy as we were) paddled by right next to the shore. The big guy got caught on the sand bar in front of us & couldn’t get off, so I stood up and ventured out into the surf to assist him in getting off the sand bar.
Now she was cold! I dug out a towel, wrapped her in it & put her tiny chair over her head to try to keep some of the pelting rain from hitting her. She never made a sound, just snuggled up and said, “what an adventure mommy”. The rain didn’t let up. The surf, already at high tide, was coming up farther and threatening to wash away the blue crab claw we had found on our way down the beach, so she jumped up to go save it… then I had to move everything farther up the beach to keep us out of the surf. LOL
For a fleeting moment I thought a tsunami might get us. I laughed at my silliness, settled down in my sandy chair while my 5 year old quickly returned to her position on my lap with her beach chair over her head. (What a site we must have been.)
Fourty-five minutes have now passed. We’ve watched lines of pelicans drafting each other on the wind currents, fish jump out of the water, the skyline from Ft. Myers Beach come and go and come again. Ahh the beauty of nature. It’s still raining, and LOOK! My friend, her son, and her sister-in-law are walking toward us, down the beach, in the pelting rain! LAUGHTER AND PURE HAPPINESS – we are not the only crazies out today.
After an hour and a half of rain, the beautiful sunshine came out, warmed us up, and allowed us a bit of time to talk with each other and laugh about our WONDERFUL ADVENTURE ON THE BEACH! Memories to laugh about.
The goal today was to think of nothing else, and just relax and enjoy our surroundings. I definitely thought of nothing but our surroundings as my motherly instincts to keep my child warm set in. I enjoyed the joy and laughter of my die hard friend who walked all that way in the rain to join me.
We got our vitamin D for the day, we got our time on the beach today, and we got memories! It definitely was NOT your typical day at the beach.
LOVE WHAT YA GOT — WHEN YA GOT IT!!!
Thank you, Heather & family for braving the weather and enjoying the morning with us!
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/AuevdfTwjdI?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0
Healthy Grease Monkey 