Confessions of a Carb Junkie
|
Slow time ..... allow a little slow in your day
Do you ever wish you had more time to "smell the roses"?
Every day I allow myself "slow time"; even if it is only a few minutes ...
Here are some slow suggestions1. Take nothing for granted: watch water flow, the flowers grow, the leaves
blow, your neighbor mow.
2. Remember a happy, peaceful time in your past. Rest there. Each moment
has richness that takes a lifetime to savor.
3. Set your own pace. When someone is pushing you, it's OK to tell them
they're pushing.
4. Taste your food. Practice midful eating
5. Notice the sun and the moon and the stars. They are remarkable
for their steady pattern of movement, not their speed. Every morning I see the
morning star out to the east
7. When you talk with someone, don't think about what you'll say next. Listen to what
they are saying. Thoughts will spring up naturally if you let them.
8. Talk and play with children. It will bring out the unhurried little
person inside you.
9. Create a place in your home ... at your work ... in your heart ...
where you can go for quiet and recollection. You deserve it.
10. Allow yourself time to be lazy and unproductive. Rest isn't luxury;
it's a necessity.
11. Listen to the wind blow. The sound of wind in the trees has such "voice"
12. Rest on your laurels. They bring comfort whatever their size, age, or
condition.
13. Talk slower. Talk less. Don't talk. Communication isn't measured by
words.
14. Listen to the song of a bird; the complete song. Music and nature are
gifts, but only if you are willing to receive them.
15. Take time just to think. Action is good and necessary, but it's
fruitful only if we muse, ponder, and mull; aren't these beautiful words
16. Learn to stand back and let others take their turn as leaders. There
will always be new opportunities for you to step out in front, again.
17. Divide big jobs into little jobs. Those big jobs seem daunting; make it easier for yourself
18. When you find yourself rushing and anxious, stop.
Ask yourself "WHY?" are you rushing and anxious.
The reasons may improve your self-understanding.
19. Take time to read. Thoughtful reading is enriching reading.
20. Direct your life with purposeful choices, not with speed and
efficiency. The best musician is one who plays with expression and
meaning, not the one who finishes first.
21. Take a day off alone; make a retreat. You can learn from monks and
hermits without becoming one.
22. Pet a furry friend. You will give and get the gift of now.
23. Work with your hands. It frees the mind.
24. Take time to wonder. Without wonder, life is merely existence.
25. Sit in the dark. It will teach you to see and hear, taste and smell.
26. Count your friends. If you have one, you are lucky. If you have more,
you are blessed. Bless them in return.
27. Count your blessings - one at a time and slowly.
Being Resilient; a point of difference for your business
This morning I attended the St George BEC Business Breakfast to give a presentation on the topic of Resilience and how being resilient can provide a point of difference in your business.
The topic fascinates me.
Are we born resilient?
Do we develop more resilience?
Is it possible to become less resilient?
How could resilience be a point of difference for your business?
Resilience generally means "bouncing back" or "rebounding" and can be applied to science, biology, engineering, IT and more recently has significant use regarding the human ability to deal with adversity. Adversity can be any event that causes a system to stretch from its natural state; this could be any hardship, difficult, misfortune, stress, catastrophe etc
Psychology describes resilience as:
Think about people you know who are resilient. How have they developed their resilience? What characterises their resilience?
Think about yourself. How many of these same characteristics do you have? What contributes to you being more resilient? What depletes your resilience?
Depleteing and building resilience:
Martin Seligman wrote Authentic Happiness. In this book he identifies a number of explanatory styles - how we view the adverse events in our lives.
Permanence describes how long the adversity will impact the individual.
Pervasiveness describes how deeply the adversity will impact the individual.
Personalisation describes the extent to which an individual believes they are responsible for an event or if it was out of their control
If you live in Sydney and are interested to learn more please attend St George BEC Business breakfast on April 21 - click here for details. Otherwise stay tuned for video and / or podcast of the session
International Women's Day 2011
Maggie commented on the Food Police and how frustrating it is to not be able to give food samples at fetes and markets.
Ronni is the CEO of OzHarvest which "recycles" food that has been "left over" from certain restaurants and supermarkets. She has lobbyed government agencies to change the rules so that this is possible.
Both commented on the fact they do not have Business Plans and at the same time they both follow what they love and believe in. "Do what you love and the money will follow"
Maggie is 66 years old and they employ 80-90 people in their local community
Inspiring to be in the presence of these great women of food.
How would you spend $15?
Recently I had a week at the beach with my mum, sister and 2 1/2 year old nephew. We had a great time swimming, walking, playing in the park and lots of time for chatting and just being together.
One morning mum "desperately" needed coffee so we stopped on the way home from the beach at one of the new cafes; coffee for mum and I, half strength skim hot chocolate (I was almost embarrassed to order this) for my sister and some sort of choclate milk for Riley. This cost $14.50
The next day we were preparing lunch and thought "a glass of something Sparkling would be nice". I zoomed across the road to the bottle shop where I was able to buy 2 bottles of a good brand of Australian Sparkling for $15. I thought "that's interesting" almost the same price as yesterdays coffees.
The following day we were being indulgent again - well we were on holidays !! Having been out all day swimming and playing we decided "Icecreams would be nice" Mum, Lisa and I chose our favourites - chocolate coated with almonds etc and these 3 cost $13.50
Hhhmmm our daily treats cost about the same amount of money each day - about $15.00 for coffees, for sparkling wine and for chocolate icecreams (we did only buy 3 icecreams between 4 of us and the previous day there was no Sparling for my nephew).
The question is which is the best value ?? which brought the most pleasure?? which would you choose??
I'm still deciding between the Sparkling and the Icecream
In the moment
I thought I knew what this meant, until last week. In the past when I have heard someone say “in the moment” I thought I knew what they meant. Not thinking about the past or the future and just enjoying being here and now.
Last week my mum and sister and my nephew and I spent a fantastic week at the beach. Being with a little boy who is only 2 and a half taught me the meaning of “in the moment” in a way that I have never thought about it before.
We checked in to the hotel and then headed for the beach. On the way through the lobby Riley spotted the luggage trolley, he wanted to play with that so we did for a little while. We enticed him with “let’s go to the beach”. Outside the lobby is the gardens with circular paths and steps leading up to the pool and around the gardens. Riley thought this was great; he could run around the path and down the steps and around the garden, all the time laughing and squealing with delight. He could happily have stayed there. Again we enticed him “let’s go to the beach”.
At that moment it occurred to me “that means nothing to him, he is happy right now”
Eventually we get out of the grounds of the hotel and start walking down the street. Again he is happy running ahead, investigating the phone box “can we call someone?” and anything else that took his attention.
Between us and the beach was the park. As you can imagine that was our next stop. Up and down the slippery slide, on the swing and then back to the slippery slide. Again we had to drag him away to get to the beach. He wanted to stay at the park and cried when we said “let’s go to the beach”
The beach was perfect. At this time of the afternoon the tide was out and the waves were just the right size for fun and the sun had lost some of its heat and we swam and jumped in the surf. He had a fantastic time and didn’t want to leave.
It occurred to me later that this was a perfect example of “in the moment.” At each stage Riley was in the moment; fully focused on enjoying what he was doing – when he was playing with the luggage trolley, running around the paths in the hotel, definitely happy playing in the play park.
He wasn’t really interested in “what’s next” he was having a great time right now.
I thought “this is what it means to be in the moment”; now I really understand the concept.
Played: 26 | Download | Duration: 00:02:35
Tips for Making this Year Different
When it comes to goal setting people pretty much fall into 2 camps – people who set goals and those who don't. Over the past couple of weeks I have been conducting my own survey; casually asking people if they had set goals as part of the start of new year. Surprising to me is the number of people who have said "Oh I don't set goals; that doesn't work."
There are ways to make goal achievement more likely to be successful. If you want to make this year different try these 5 steps:
1. Set yourself only 2 or 3 goals.
I find that if I am working on too many goals at the same time that I don’t seem to achieve as much I think I ought to be able to. Working on less goals means I have more time to devote to each goal.
Try it, set only a few goals and work on them.
When you set yourself a few goals then you have more time to devote to each one. Devoting more time will result in more progress and more progress makes you feel more motivated. When you become more motivated, you will put more effort into working on your goals. It’s a very healthy cycle of motivation and success.
2. Write them down.
Amazing how many people don’t write down their goals.
All the research shows that there is significant increase in achievement when goals are written down.
3. Choose someone who will hold you accountable.
Coaches across the world know that one of the critical ways to improve performance is to be accountable to someone. When you know you have to report to someone who will not let you off the hook or listen to excuses, performance Always improves.
Think about a person who can be your mentor/ coach/ goal buddy. Ask this person to hold you accountable. Arrange weekly “check in” where you report progress towards your goal.
4. Keep your goals front of mind.
Years ago someone told me the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire is the frequency with which they keep check of their goals. When you keep your goals front of mind then you are more likely to take actions to achieve them.
What you focus on is what turns up in your life. I truly believe that this is one of the main reasons that people don’t make progress towards achieving their goals. It is important to be thinking about them all day long.
As part of my morning “preparation for the day” ritual I read my goals early in the morning. During the day I have times where I re-focus my attention to my goals. The more I am thinking about what I want to achieve the more my energy focuses on things that help me achieve them.
5. Do something every day.
This is a variation on my “just get started” motto. Each small step you take will move you close to your goal. Taking action is what will help you to achieve your goals. There are 365 days in a year and if you do one action every day that is 365 actions working towards your goal.
These are just words on a page, or computer screen until you bring them alive. Bring your goals to life with these 5 steps and you just might find that this year is Different.
Eating Fat does not make you fat
We have established in the previous e-letter that the liver has 2 important functions:
- Break down fats
- Filter harmful substances
Eliminating the harmful substances will always take precedence on your liver’s “job card”. If your liver is busy coping with and eliminating the harmful substances then it cannot break down fats at the same time.
So if you want to get rid of fat, it seems fairly straightforward:
Stop distracting your liver by consuming harmful substances.
Of course many people are not aware of just how harmful some foods are. I use a simple rule of thumb – if I’m reading the ingredients on the side of the packet/ jar/ box and I cannot pronounce something out loud, chance are it’s “harmful” in the liver cleansing sense.
Once you get these harmful substances under control your liver can get working on breaking down the fats. Many people think that the way to lose weight or lose fat is to stop eating fat.
Eating fat does not make you fat – fat helps your liver break down existing fat through increasing the metabolic process. What is important is to eat the Good Fats as opposed to the Bad Fats.
What are the Bad Fats?
- Trans fats - which are created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make it more solid
- Saturated fats – which are the solid fats
If you wanted to reduce the amount of Trans fats you would avoid:
- Biscuits, cakes, donuts, pastries
- Pizza, fries, corn chips, potato crisps
If you wanted to reduce the amount of Saturated fats you would avoid:
- Deep fried food, most take-away fast food
- Chicken skin, fatty meats
- Cheese, ice cream
- Lard – which is often used in pasty
If you have been working on eliminating the harmful chemical substances from your diet to help your liver then you have most likely reduced the amount of these foods that you eat. Isn’t it interesting how often the same “bad” foods turn up the same “bad foods” list.
What are the Good Fats? These are the fats that you can and ought to be eating; unsaturated fats:
- Olive oil
- olives
- Vegetable oils
- Oily fish and fish oils
- raw nuts; almonds, peanuts, walnuts, cashew nuts
- avocados
- eggs
An important take away from this is to minimise the bad fats. Studies have shown that eating as little as 5 grams of trans fats a day can increase the risk of coronary heart disease by 25%. There is good research to show that eating moderate amounts of the good fats actually reduces risks of coronary disease.
It is easy to say “Eliminate the Bad Stuff”. I would rather focus on increasing the Good Stuff. When we eat more of the Good foods we don’t feel as inclined to want to eat the bad foods.
Look after your liver
Eating fat does not make you fat; looking after your liver
Another New Year and another set of “lose weight” resolutions. A popular choice of diet for many hoping to keep that New Year resolution, will be the one that instructs the dieter to “cut out fat” or “eat less fat”. People will stock up on “low-fat” items believing that by cutting out “fat” they will lose weight. There are 2 problems with this thinking:
First: It is impossible to lose fat without eating fat. Fat does not make you fat.
Second: Fat is not your enemy. There are other enemies; chemicals and other harmful substances are a major issue in fat retention.
Many of the foods being sold today are laden with a variety of chemicals and other substances. Have you read a food label lately? Many of the ingredients listed are chemical compounds. Some of the “foods” are completely constructed in a laboratory eg some of the butter substitutes are all chemical.
You may be wondering “What have the chemicals got to do with fat and weight loss?”
It is all about your liver. Your liver has 2 functions:
1. Break down fats
2. Filter harmful substances
Filtering harmful substances will always take priority because this is about survival. When you eat foods that have chemical substances it is the liver that jumps into action to extract anything it deems “harmful” and filters them out as quickly as possible. When these substances are combined together the liver is overwhelmed. What things combine to overwhelm your liver?
- Any processed foods
- Artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes
- Alcohol keeps the liver very busy
- Preservatives take a lot of filtering
- High fructose corn syrup is prevalent is so many foods and is extremely hard on the workings of your liver
If we are eating foods containing chemicals and other harmful substances every day, then all your liver ever does is filter out these harmful substances. For example if you have a muffin and a “high energy” mil drink, you liver will be working on all the chemicals in the muffin and the drink. By the time the liver has treated all the chemicals chances are it is lunch time and you have a “diet” drink and maybe a frozen “low fat” pre-made frozen lunch, or one of those bowls that you just add water. Again your liver will be busy with all the chemicals. After work you might stop off for a glass of wine and maybe some chips/crisps or those other tasty bar treats. Here is more work for your liver. And then dinner ….
Can you see how your liver is busy all day countering all the chemicals and never getting a chance to break down fats. And we haven’t even added in the snack chocolate bar or biscuits during the day.
Your liver never gets a chance to get to the main job of breaking down fats.
If you want your liver to break down fats then all you have to do is minimise the amount of harmful substances you consume. Stop eating the chemicals and give your liver a chance to get onto the main job of breaking down fats. You need to eat fats to lose fat.
We will look at good fats and bad fats in the next article. In the mean time have a good look in your pantry and fridge and eliminate as many of the chemical laden foods as possible. You may even find that just by taking these substances out of your kitchen, and out of your life, you might just lose weight – many others have done just this.
Staying Hydrated in Summer; nothing competes with water.
My family call me the “Water Fairy”. Years ago my aunt started it because of my attention to making sure everyone had glasses of water. I grew up in Queensland at a time when there was no air-conditioning (was there a time?). At school or when playing sport, if we ever felt a bit woozy, or complained of headache, we were told to drink a large glass of water and rest for 10 mins in the shade. (I never remember anyone “popping” painkillers.)
Water is the best way to quench thirst. Juice, soft drinks and many commercial drinks actually further dehydrate an already thirty body.
Many of us carry our own water bottles with us so we can refill and reuse over and over. The question is, are the water bottles a health issue.
Last Christmas Day we went for an early morning walk at my favourite beach. Joy of joys, for my Playmate, there was a café open for coffee. I ordered and when I returned to the table he asks “Luvvie, how long have you had this water bottle?”
“Oh, just a couple of months”
“Couldn’t be, the expiry date on the bottle says ‘best before October 2007’” (Water has an expiry date?)
Seems my bottle was actually a couple of years old, not months. How time flies.
Our discussion then turned to the health impact of the reused water bottle. I choose to carry a plastic water bottle and am happy to carry the PET bottle for a couple of reasons; size and comfort for carrying when walking/ exercising. Often the PET bottles are contoured to make for easy grip/ lift / carrying.
In the past I have looked at the non-plastic bottles specifically designed for reuse and they are too big, too heavy and too uncomfortable to carry while walking.
So, the question is: is the PET bottle safe?
The bottles made from PET are safe so long as they are washed thoroughly with detergent to remove bacteria between uses. (I choose to throw mine away and start again any time I have the slightest “germ” in my system.)
If you re-use plastic drinking bottles made from polycarbonate, you need to be aware that with repeated use and washing, the plastic monomers can sometimes start to break down and release into the water. This doesn't necessarily create a health risk, but some of us would prefer to avoid the risk, especially where young children are concerned.
Aluminium and stainless steel bottles have become increasingly popular as well, and these are generally safe. Stainless steel can corrode a little over time and while the released iron won't harm you, can add an unpleasant taste to your water. Aluminium can also corrode and release aluminium salts into the water.
If you want to err on the side of caution when it comes to plastic drinking bottles, the best way to choose safely is to look at the recycling code on the base of the bottle:
- Avoid drink bottles that have the recycling codes of 3 or 7, particularly for children.
- The best bottles to use and re-use are those with the recycling codes 2, 4 and 5.
- 2 and 4 are made from polyethylene and 5 is made from polypropylene.
Source: ABC Health & Wellbeing
