Posts in "Teens"

The Habit Of Eating Meat May Be Hurting Us (And Our World)

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THE HABIT OF EATING MEAT MAY BE HURTING US (AND OUR WORLD) (ISSUE 120)

By Diane Gold

The Habit Of Eating MeatThe habit of eating meat is passed down from one generation to another, in most societies. Throughout the years, a symbol of abundance has become the finest steak dinner, so much so that, at one point, the overproduction of uric acid crystals between the joints known as gout, got the nickname “disease of the rich” because wealth often meant increased intake of animal proteins.

 

Plant-Based NutritionWhat is now becoming common knowledge, or is such to the Millenial generation and after, is that hunger and thirst could be contained if we increased our plant-based nutrition consumption; we could reduce many chronic diseases if we reduced or removed meat from our diet; our water footprint to farm livestock for food is sending the world economies on a downward spiral of water emergencies; especially in the latest generation, people are questioning whether it is ethical to eat meat (which could includes but is not limited to beef, pork, lamb, chicken, fish, bees).

This article looks at this global habit in relation to agribusiness, the pharmaceutical industry and education.

HUNGER

What would happen if the money spent on livestock feed were spent on growing extra food for people who needed food?

According to PETA:

1) Using an acre of land to raise cattle for slaughter produces 20 pounds of meat. This same acre could produce 365 pounds of soybeans, 17 times more food.

2) The resource to produce 1 pound of meat would produce 13 pounds of grain. That would feed an entire community, rather than 1 family.

Help Hunger By Replacing Our Meat Habit3) This year, 7100 children will die from a hunger-related disease per day. That’s 2.6 million for the year. We can help hunger by replacing our meat habit with some form of plant-based nutrition.

HEALTH

1) ANTIBIOTICS

The use of antibiotics in livestock production has created highly resistant strains of bacteria (super bugs) which pass by touch to workers, from water supply contaminated by infected animal feces and from uncooked infected meat.

Because of the power of the food and pharmaceutical industries, the Food And Drug Administration (FDA), unlike the European Union, has never banned antibiotic use in animal production. It did, however, implement a regulation that asked the farm industry voluntarily to phase out the use of certain antibiotics.

Antibiotics Are Used In Animal FeedFor those not calculating, if antibiotics are used in animal feed, the drug companies get paid for their drugs and farmers get to fatten up their livestock more quickly from the antibiotics so they reduce feeding expense. This translates to a less healthy environment, chemically altered food and reduced health.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

It is important to note that most super bugs that affect humans are obtained from overuse of antibiotics in humans.

2) PLANT-BASED NUTRITION

There is much evidence that plant-based eating reduces obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol. Therefore, what about replacing the meat habit with plant-based foods for health and environment?

Check out more interesting facts here: https://warriorsofweight.com/6-great-reasons-for-plant-based-nutrition.

WATER FOOTPRINT

The statistics around the amount of water used to produce food are so unreliable since circumstances are always changing and it is a very tricky subject. It is true that the amount of water used for vegetables and livestock vary from one measure to another.

To produce 1 head of broccoli, 5.4 gallons of water are needed.

To produce 1 tomato, 3 gallons are needed.

According to the journal, Ecosystems, a study by M. Mekonnen and A. Hoekstra from U of Twente, Netherlands, beef uses 4 million gallons of water per ton. That means just under 40,000 gallons for a pound of meat. To break it down further, the study looked at the amount of “blue” water used. For veggies, 5.6 gallons of blue water is used to produce a pound. 20 gallons is used to produce a pound of fruit. And about 72 gallons are used to produce a pound of beef. These figures vary greatly, depending on the further breakdown within the category.

According to Ask.com, the Department of Animal and Range Sciences at the South Dakota University measured that 1 cow may yield 84 pounds of steak quality meat, which means, more or less, 225 6 oz. meals or 336 4 oz. meals. The same amount of water produces 23,000,000 heads of broccoli.

And 70% of the water used in livestock industry is to grow animal feed; in California, this means alfalfa for cows. The sad thing is that, even though California is experiencing a water shortage, farmers are exporting alfalfa hay to Asia. (Show me the money!)

According to the Food And Agriculture Organization Of The United Nations, 70% of land that has been deforested in Latin America, which means, in part, the Amazon, is used for livestock grazing. The expense of the food for livestock is what makes the least sustainable sense.

THE ETHICS OF EATING MEAT

I have had lively debate with a local doctor. He talks about how plants have feelings, or certainly, that they react to stimuli; and I talk about how I believe plants yield to us but should be thanked for their sacrifice. Certainly, we both agree that hurting animals is wrong.Plants Have Feelings

In my opinion, if vegan food is available to me; it is my duty to eat it. Were I in a North country with limited vegetation, would I eat fish or four-legged animals? I would, because it’s my duty to self-sustain; I would give thanks for the animal’s life I used for mine, the way I do with the plants I eat.

A fascinating fact is that Inuits in Greenland have low heart disease. They eat primarily proteins and fats from salmon, whale and seal with no sugars and no carbs. This statistic may come from their Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio, which is balanced at 1:1, unlike in the West where we are Omega-6 (inflammatory) rich.

CONCLUSION

The habit of eating meat is like any other repetitive pattern we have. When we think about it, we may choose to change it in order to enhance our health, eat in a way that will help stop hunger, be examples of saving water so there will be some left for our grandchildren and modify our ethical actions.

Grateful For Whatever Food You EatInstead of blindly consuming food, just because it tastes good to us, we might want to consider the consequences of our actions. Not following in the footsteps of the past generations, we might want to evaluate the newest scientific evidence about food and nutrition. We might choose to realize that the dairy and meet industries have vast sums of money to promote the idea of eating meat or consuming dairy. Big media are friends with big dairy, big meat, big poultry and big pharma. These relationships may be cause for us to do our own research on whether the habit of eating meat needs a complete turnaround in 2014.

ACTION STEPS

Here are several action steps that may serve all of us.

1) Check out the amount of Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids you consume on an average day, shooting for 4 (Omega-6) : 1(Omega-3). The National Institute Of Science recommends a ratio of 10:1 in the United States. In my opinion, that’s because they are friends with agribusiness producers who make vegetable oils, sugars and other foods that imbalance the ratio. Other countries typically say 4:1 is OK, new evidence points to 1:1 being ideal.

2) Research a few hunger statistics, and consider replacing 1 meat meal weekly with a plant-based meal. You can go to the PETA website at http://features.peta2.com/making-the-connection/world-hunger.aspx, about half way down to the slider showing the ratio of elimination of eating animals to the amount of hunger that would go away.

Grateful For Whatever Food You Eat 23) Be grateful for whatever food you eat. This will bring positive feelings to the world, which may, in turn, create happier circumstances for all animals and plants, including ourselves.
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FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.
Please leave a comment.

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DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She is slowly realizing the importance of early education to impact environment when it comes to animal farming and proper nutrition. She says,

“Teachers have the absolute privilege of connecting the dots for young children to understand the world and how it works. What can be taught now to elementary school children is things like producing meat can use 10 times as much blue water as producing vegetables. And reducing meat consumption can reduce hunger.

“These real-life scenarios can help children to understand what most adults don’t due to lack of connecting the dots: that greed or over-consumption can keep the world out of balance and that a little self-control in each of us can heal the world one hungry child at a time. Our thoughtful actions can also create health in ourselves.

“With this knowledge, the youth, who are the change makers of the world, will be able to take meaningful actions based on seeing the full picture. But, will the education system – walking on tiptoes to maintain its funding – allow such teaching; and will the community – walking on tiptoes so that the major corporations lend a hand to sponsor local projects so local politicians look good – allow the open teaching that is needed? It will require patient work on the part of local educators. But, it’s worth it to educate students about the habit of eating meat and what issues surround it.”

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Food Labels-Next Generation In Nutritional Data

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FOOD LABELS, THE NEXT GENERATION IN NUTRITIONAL DATA (ISSUE 119)

By Diane Gold

Food LabelsFood labels, the next generation in nutritional data, is being proposed by the Food And Drug Administration. The changes to the nutritional label would help consumers identify food facts more easily, get a more realistic and up-to-date version of what a portion of food in the present day represents and know what sugars in a product are added and not part of the inherent make-up of the food.

1970s TO CURRENT FOOD REGULATIONS

I have been researching ingredients and labels since 1971 when I started querying manufacturers about from what source enzymes, lecithin, mono- and di- glycerides,  and the myriad of hard-to-pronounce substances. I wanted to know whether they came from an animal, vegetable, mineral, synthetic process. Back in those days, similar to now, many manufacturers did not know that information because they used whatever their suppliers supplied them based upon what was cheapest on the day of purchase.

1970s. The first labels came in the early 1970s when some companies began putting food information on the packaging.

1990. In 1990 came the Nutrition Labeling And Education Act, which required macronutrients on the label: protein, carbohydrates, fats and other data.

1996. The Food Quality Protection Act came in 1996 which regulated some of the pesticides in our food.

2011. The Federal Food, Drug And Cosmetic Act came with more regulation on pesticides, which came from updated reports of the harmful effects these pesticides had on humans and animals through the food they ate.

2014. The Food And Drug Administration has a proposal to upgrade food labels once again. After reading about the changes,

ACTION STEP

Go here to comment, agree, add, disagree:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FDA-2012-N-1210

and leave a comment. When we take action, change happens.

THE PROPOSED CHANGES

1)    SERVING SIZE

Serving Size Changes What we used to eat 20 years ago that was listed by FDA as one serving is being recognized as obsolete and totally inaccurate. Due to our larger servings or mislabeling originally, the portion size on the label is being increased. So, if we ate ice cream before the label changes, 1 serving would be 200 calories, half a cup, with 4 servings in the pint.

The proposed change would list 1 serving as 400 calories, 1 cup, with 2 servings per pint. If I were eating ice cream, which I do infrequently to curb the repercussions from this occurrence, my single serving could be 2 cups, 800 calories, 1 pint. And that’s not including any additional nuts, syrupy fruit, caramel or fresh, ice cream store ice cream.

With the proposed changed, the well-known brand of store-bought designer ice cream I just checked would go from serving size 1/2 cup to 1 cup, since most people don’t eat 1/2 cup.

It’s also possible the FDA will include a dual column label which would allot for accuracy of 2 different sized portions, like 1 cup serving or 2 cups (whole container for a pint) or, with soda, 12 oz. or 24 oz.

 

Dual Column Food LabelsThe term cup is helpful because it’s something we can measure. The term container keeps is nebulous since containers range in sizes.

2)   ADDED SUGARS

Food labels have a column for sugars. What they don’t say is from where that sugar is derived. They don’t say whether it is from the natural orange in the ingredients or from some additional sugar, added during manufacturing. The FDA proposal asks for a sub-heading called Added Sugars. I believe it will be a percentage so that we will be left to figure out which are natural ingredients and which are added. This would mean we have to be aware that agave, agave nectar, barley malt syrup, beet sugar, brown rice syrup, brown sugar, cane or cane juice crystals, cane sugar, coconut sugar, coconut palm sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, dehydrated cane juice, dextrin, dextrose, evaporated cane juice, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltodextrin, malt syrup, maltose, maple syrup, molasses, palm sugar, raw sugar, rice syrup, saccharose syrup, sorghum syrup, stevia, sucrose, syrup, treacle, turbinado sugar, xylose are added sugars and sorbitol and maltitol are sugar alcohols.

Why do we care about added sugars?

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 78 (suppl) 827s, 2003 said,
” … excess energy intake from added sugars can potentially lead to nutrient shortcomings, due to displacement of more nutrient-dense foods/beverages, and to weight.”

To clarify nutrient density, here’s Clemson University, South Carolina, Cooperative Extension Service’s definition,

“Foods that supply generous amounts of one or more nutrients compared to the number of calories they supply are called nutrient dense.”

So, if we’re gorging down sweetened soda, we are not ingesting glorious veggie juice, hydrating water or other healthy food that is not reaching us because we are full from nutritionless soda.

It’s important to be aware of ingredients that are sugar. If a product has more than one of these, the split in “actual sugar,” that is, a substance that turns carbs into glucose, gets lower on the label of ingredients since the highest percentage ingredients go first.

3)   NUTRIENT REQUIREMENTS

Calcium, Iron stay. Potassium, Vitamin D are added. Vitamins A and C will no longer required.

4)   UPDATED DAILY VALUES

The amounts of nutrients needed per day will be updated to match the current scientific information we have.

Proposed FDA Food Label Changes

5)   DESIGN

The daily values will be on the left side, more visible to the eye, and the serving size and calories will be bigger and bolder so that we become more aware of what our serving size actually is.

Personally, I would like to see every package show the total calories per package, like 1217 calories for a bag of 8 oz. fried, unsalted potato chips, so that when I buy them and eat them in one sitting, I am completely aware of the 79 grams of fat (25g of which is saturated) I consume. Calories are great since they give energy to the body; it’s where they come from that matters. And this one bag exceeds the amount of fat and saturated fat recommended for 1 person in 1 entire day.

 

ADDICTION ALERT

Potato ChipsEating an entire bag of chips, on my part, is possible. It’s similar to my addictive ways with any substance. If I indulge in it once, I will want to indulge again the next day and will have to put forth a concerted effort to replace the potato chip buying behavior with another for, at least, a month, until, if I am lucky, the urge will go dormant again. When I do it, I usually buy baked (reducing the fat grams to 24 greasy grams), since fried will make me feel sick and the craving for grease will require more will power to replace.

IMPORTANT CHANGES I WOULD LIKE TO ADD

What are not included in the proposed changes are the following:

1)   PROHIBITING NON-SCIENTIFIC VERBIAGE LIKE “NATURAL” AND “FRESH,” words that are meaningless and mislead the uneducated consumer to think these foods are better or organic. We depend upon it to regulate food and drugs, and, thus, should require scientifically founded language only with asterisk to the report on which it is based so that our health knowledge is never based on which company has the best marketing.

2)   REQUIRING HARVESTED AND MANUFACTURING DATE AND STATEMENT THAT SAYS SAFE IF USED BY, including the report on which this “use by” info is based. Currently, we have no way to know whether produce is left in a refrigerator for a year or not. With manufacturing, each decides on the length of time after completion date that is safe for a consumer. Therefore, we have no way to know on what data each farmer or manufacturer uses. We have a right to know and for it all to be consistently monitored.

3)   LISTING INGREDIENT SOURCES USED IN MANUFACTURING, gathering, packaging process and whether they are animal, plant, part-animal or -plant or synthetic, including defined guidelines for the words animal, vegetable, part and synthetic.
Take isinglass or other animal derivative finings in beer or wine which clears out cloudiness from yeast. There are also glycerol monostearate used for foam on the beer and honey or lactose for flavor. Since these additives exist, every manufacturer should be required to define whether or not its product contains any of these or other ingredients.

4)   LISTING THE SOURCE, for ingredients that typically have multiple sources. An example of this would be lecithin, without the word animal, soy or plant-based next to it. When the labels says lecithin, we are guessing at its source.  Another very common ingredient is mono-glycerides or mono-and di-glycerides, as they are commonly used together. These emulsifiers can come from animal, plant or synthesized process. If a product lists animal mono-glycerides, there would be no question as to its source, and people could make informed decisions without calling the manufacturer. As it is now, manufacturers only list the details of ingredients to avoid law suits from allergic reactions or if their profits come from a particular religious group that requires it. I would change the regulation to require producer disclosure on  all packaging.

5)   DISCLOSURE OF WAX AND POLISH, such as waxes on produce or polishing on vitamins tablets. Each manufacturer or produce finisher (the company that sprays wax on fruit before it goes to market) should be required to list the source of the ingredients that are used. Of course, this means that manufacturers would have to keep an up-to-date database of the sources of the ingredients from their suppliers.

Many people are not aware that apples, avocados, peppers are waxed. The wax may be plant-based, bee-based, petroleum-based or synthetic. We deserve to go to the store or market and get our food without having to call the food’s producer before eating it. The food industry is concerned with safety, as it should be. It would do well also to care about informing us of what we consume because we trust them.

CONCLUSION

We depend upon food labels all the time. Their accuracy is crucial for our education and that of children. Eating nutritionally is the one action that can maximize our health, more than any other act. The FDA has the ability to educate us with the nutritional data they approve on packages.

ACTION STEP

It’s great that there is an update coming on food labels. Let’s make some comments at:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=FDA-2012-N-1210

to be personally involved, to make a difference and to speak out for what we believe.

There is a finite window for these comments before the proposal goes for a vote. So, let’s make them count toward the next generation of food labels.
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DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She has been working with food manufacturers for 40 years, inquiring about information not shown on food labels. She says,

“I believe it is the food industry’s job to educate us: not at the expense of profit but, also, not at the expense of foregoing the latest science. The food labeling system should provide for more frequent label updates as the science comes in.

“The manufacturer and the farmer are our teachers in nutritional data. Let us use them wisely in this educational regard.
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Quitting A Habit!

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QUITTING A HABIT! (ISSUE 118)

By Diane Gold

Quitting a habit! Quitting is such a simple word. It has two very different connotations, although they both mean the same thing. It means the act of stopping doing something. But, in our minds, it usually refers to stopping our current job or ceasing our current habit. We will focus on the habit.

PSYCHOLOGICALLY HELPFUL?Life Being Sucked Out

When we use the word “quitting” for the cessation of a habit, it conjures up the image of life being sucked out of our bodies. Even thinking about stopping a habit feels as if we are going to lose something instead of gain something. Psychologically, these concepts direct our actions, so they are not just semantic observations that only have intellectual use. When we see we are going to get something; it can cause pleasure, and we are more likely to move toward it. On the other hand, when we are going to lose something; it can cause pain and we avoid it.

That’s why it’s much more advantageous for us to use the correct word and one that is more pleasing to our psyche: replacing. When we replace something, we maintain a feeling of abundance. This keeps us balanced and happy.

THE TRUTH

The truth is this:

ONCE A HABIT, ALWAYS A HABIT.

This is not a bad thing, so please, let’s hold onto our hats and rejoice! It’s a reality that when we respond to an urge for something over and over again, it becomes a habit.

And, once we have learned it, we usually do not unlearn it. What we do accomplish is we replace it. And this is the interesting fact.

REPLACING A HABIT

Replacing A HabitSo, here’s this task we have for ourselves. We have a habit, and we want to replace it.

One of the online dictionary’s defines replace as,

“Take the place of” and

“Put back in a previous position.”

I would edit the second definition to be,

“Put in position,”

merely because where the “something” is placed could be in an old or new area of our lives.

REPLACING VS. QUITTING

When it comes to habits, replacing and quitting are like opposite sides of the yin-yang symbol, where opposing forces make the whole.

Half Empty Or Half FullConsider the glass’ being half empty or half full concept. When the glass is full, we think of richness. The empty term, in Western terms, can speak to barrenness, although, in the Eastern way, emptiness is the way to abundance.

Deleting the term “quitting,” when it comes to habit change is a freeing experience. So many people are anxiety ridden when they think they have to quit something. Many fewer people are troubled when they think about replacing or doing a new behavior and keeping the attention on that new behavior.

In fact, the idea of focus comes into play. When we focus on quitting our old behavior, our mind is filled with all the old memories that go with the behavior. When we focus on replacing our behavior with the new one, we walk in the new direction, which is where we want to go.

There’s all that talk about keeping the eye on the target, the goal, the ball. It’s true that if we keep focused on the new behavior as if it comes naturally, eventually, with repetition, the replacement behavior will become natural, and we will have a new habit. Or, at least, we will get good at replacing it.

CAUTION: THE BOREDOM TRIGGER

BoredomBe careful of the feeling of boredom. It can act as a built-in excuse for doing a certain behavior that is not good for us. We might think that if we had excitement rather than stagnation in our lives, we would not act out the behavior we wanted to change. We might even create the boredom to delude ourselves.

Boredom, in many cases, is the actual trigger that causes our over and over again behavior that becomes a habit. Rather than knowing there are an infinite amount of things we can do to lead full lives, it’s important to pre-plan one or two of them. That way, we will be armed against even the most common cues like boredom.

ACTION STEPS

So, let’s get started and see how it feels.

ACTION STEP 1

1)   Pick one thing you wish to “put in position.” This means pick any habit you would like to replace, such as eating desserts or sleeping too much.

Urge To Eat DessertLet’s say we always get the urge to eat dessert. We can change our reaction to this trigger by planning another behavior in its stead, such as going jogging as soon as that urge is felt. This will begin the process of replacement. Repeating this behavior will turn it into a habit. By behaving consistently by jogging and not dessert eating, we will have replaced our old with the new behavior. Although this certainly is quitting acting out the old behavior from the sheer repetition of the act; it’s easier to accomplish by using the concept of “replace.”

ACTION STEP 2

2)   Keep a record of what time the urge occurs, what time you start the new behavior (like jogging) and how long you do the new behavior and each time this occurs for a week. If this is accomplished for a week, continue the process for another week, another week and another week.

ACTION STEP 3

3)   Promise yourself you will not judge whether it is just as difficult to do the new behavior a month later as it was on the first day. This feeling is not important. It just exists and doesn’t work only one way. For some people, it becomes easier with time to be automatic about doing your new behavior. For others, you will have to be deliberate in directing yourself to do your new behavior.

Just keep replacing. Each time you do, it’s OK to give yourself a high five in the mirror.

CONCLUSION

Think about quitting a habit. It reminds me of wrenching something from life. We have to do without which causes pain.

Now think about replacing a habit. Ever more gentle it is, causing some growing pains, yet not attacking our psyche in the same way.

Easiest PathOf course, when we want to do something new in place of some old habit, we want to give ourselves the easiest path to follow. That path involves planning one simple action that will be repeated over and over again. It also requires saying “replace” instead of “quit.”

Armed with these tools, we have every opportunity to have a pain-free experience of moving from one habit to another.
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DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She believes “replacing a habit” is a more nurturing way of the phrase “quitting a habit.” She says,

“How we are treated by others is really important. How we treat ourselves is crucial.

“We have the opportunity to be nurturing to ourselves. Making it easy for ourselves is one such way to nurture. This includes speaking of ourselves fondly and setting up the user friendliest situations. For habit change, this means using the word ‘replace’ and not ‘quit.’ It’s similar to the difference between exercising on a rocky field or exercising on a flat cushy matted floor. One is easier than the other.

“Be nice to thyself whenever possible. This will facilitate us in any habit change endeavor.”

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10 Habit Change Mistakes Educated People Make

10 HABIT CHANGE MISTAKES EDUCATED PEOPLE MAKE (ISSUE 113)

By Diane Gold

With regard to habit change, we don’t start out by saying,

“It’s time to make 10 habit change mistakes. Or 5 or 1. Oh, boy. I’m ready to make those mistakes.”

Habit Change MistakesOf course, we don’t. We have every intention of carrying out our newly designed plan that we’ve been considering for some time. We have the motivation, and we know all we have to do is,

“Do it,”

so we’re going to start. What goes along with this commencement is an understanding of what goes along with the method we have chosen.

Here are 10 habit change mistakes and the action steps we can take to dissolve them.
With a good foundation, we can stay on our path and avoid these common mistakes.

NOTE TO REMEMBER

Every mistake is an opportunity, no matter who we are. And most times, we would do well to substitute the word opportunity for mistake.

#1 MISTAKE)

Run right out and join a gym challenge.

What’s great about this is that action was taken. What stinks is that we didn’t prepare our minds for the task ahead. Our path is our path. A gym challenge is a competitive race and, although, infrequently, we can get the ball rolling for our motivation effort, most of the time, looking at the way others train allows us to miss our own rhythm and causes us to fall off the wagon and stop the process.

ACTION STEPS TO AVOID MISTAKE #1

a)   Realize that you are your own person.

b)   Keep your mind on your work. Although we have been taught to judge, taking the time to judge yourself slows you down, is wasteful and is unnecessary.

c)    If you absolutely have to judge or compare, only look at yourself: compare yourself today to yourself tomorrow.

d)   Have a fun time.

#2 MISTAKE)

Start an exercise program doing 3 hours on the first day

When beginning an exercise routine, it is crucial to be consistent, energized and motivated. Tempered training is best, meaning that every day, the same amount of work is accomplished. Or overwork may lead us to walk away from the exercise program.

ACTION STEPS TO AVOID MISTAKE #2

Specific Amount Of Timea)   Commit to a specific amount of time to will work daily or every other day for one week, no changes.

b)   After week one, decide to continue for 1 week, 2 weeks or 3 weeks.

c)   Commit to the same amount of time or a new amount of time. Do not pick an amount of time that will strain your mind.

 

#3 MISTAKE)

Start consuming special weight reduction pharmaceuticals or supplements with the idea that there are no side effects during the regimen and after stopping.

Everything we ingest in our body affects our body and chemistry. Weight loss supplements have the added disadvantage of developing a tolerance in their consumer, requiring an increased dose after a short time. The other hindrance is that when we use an external apparatus to change, we don’t make a lasting change in ourselves.

ACTION STEPS TO AVOID MISTAKE #3

a)   Start a 1 daily one minute exercise program. This will motivate further work that will act as a catalyst for a lasting good habit.

b)   Carry out this daily program for at least one week before you take the weight loss supplement. This will give you the best chance not to take it. When we change ourselves, we change ourselves. When something outside us changes us, we have not changed, and our weight loss will not sustain itself.

#4 MISTAKE)

ResearchUse a supplement without researching its research and realizing that the referred to research isn’t public, is disorganized, was done using inconclusive method, doesn’t exist, is too old, was mismanaged, was word of mouth, used evidence-based information based on a control group of 30 people on which all world info is based, was gathered by the manufacturer and publicized in a magazine published by the manufacturer.

(sound like any pharmaceutical products you know where the manufacturers may not own the journals where their trials are published but whose board members play golf and vacation with journal publishers, academicians and government regulators, the last of whom will most certainly ask colleagues in big pharma for a consulting job when s/he has done enough favors for them as a regulator?)

Since supplements are not regulated by the FDA, supplement labels are allowed to say,

“Proven effective by medical science,”

without citing the proof. Hoards of products carry similar labels for the purpose of selling product and having us believe in research that may or may not exist. Data on each ingredient may be secondary information, meaning that the manufacturer got the data from some other company which is not the direct supplier from whom they got the ingredient.

Drugs that are FDA approved have their own flaws. And drugs that may be approved for weight loss for bariatric surgery patients may never have been tested on non-bariatric surgery patients, but doctors prescribe them anyway. This is called off-label prescribing. So, do the research after the FDA, also.

ACTION STEPS TO AVOID MISTAKE #4

a)   Eliminate one food that is not good for you one time a week, and hold off on starting your supplement for one week.

b)   Call customer support at your supplement manufacturer, and ask them to point you to the research on each of their ingredients. They will balk, say hold on, come back and read from a sheet they have been given about allergies. At that point, ask them to reach out to their Research and Development Team to get links to the necessary public information. Be patient. It takes a while.

c)   Look up the side effects of each ingredient in your supplement, and evaluate your risk.

d)   Look at the comments about the supplement online, and see whether any of those come from a researcher. If not, evaluate accordingly, and keep digging.

e)   Repeat a) once every 72 hours until you get an answer. It may take a year, but keep companies accountable by following up persistently.

#5 MISTAKE)

Decide to lose weight and stop eating.

Obviously, we need our nutrients to be well. By eliminating our meals for the sake of weight loss, we are putting our body at risk. Instead,

ACTION STEPS TO AVOID MISTAKE #5

a)   Do 2 stretching exercises, each for 30 seconds before drinking water in b).

b)   Drink one- or two-12 oz . glass(es) of water before eating each of 6 half-size meals a day.

c)   Leave a little bit of each meal on the plate.

#6 MISTAKE)

Decide to lose weight, stop smoking, quit alcohol and drugs, stop gambling all at the same time.

One-Pointed FocusWe need one-pointed focus to embark on any strategy. It’s hard enough without our giving ourselves scattered mind.

ACTION STEPS TO AVOID MISTAKE #6

Commit to one area for habit change, stick with it for a month or two. Then, look at changing another.

 

#7 MISTAKE)

Decide to take time off from your work to do everything in 6).

Keeping the regular routine, including work, helps us habit change. Often, we need distraction from thinking about our old reward. Work helps this.

ACTION STEP TO AVOID MISTAKE #7

Don’t stop work or your regular routine.  Just begin your strategy.

#8 MISTAKE)

Forget to look at your nutritional intake as a responsible factor for cravings, anger, depression, hyperactivity.

What we put in is what comes out.

ACTION STEPS TO AVOID MISTAKE #8

a)   Do some research on the food that you eat and drink.

Nutritionb)   Eliminate some sugar, salt, oil and animal fat every meal.

#9 MISTAKE)

Depend upon a buddy system for doing your habit change without doing personal development.

Buddies are great, but we need to change ourselves along with whatever else we are doing with our buddy. That way, if/when the body system goes away, we will stand on our own with our new habit intact.

ACTION STEPS TO AVOID MISTAKE #9

a)   Do tai chi or some other mind/body work along with your habit change.

b)   Go to your library and help a non-reader read.

#10 MISTAKE)

Not join a mind/body or straight body program because you are waiting until you have lost weight, gained weight, stopped smoking, lost your flab, quit alcohol and drugs, stopped gambling.

Waiting until … is a mistake. Do it now, whatever it is. Put the ego in the closet.

ACTION STEPS TO AVOID MISTAKE #10

MeditationJoin a gym, a dance class, meditation session now, even though you don’t want people to see the many rolls of fat you have. Waiting means not progressing, so go, go, go today!

CONCLUSION

Look at your special curves that you might want to reduce or your wrinkles you might want to tighten, and say to yourself,

“You look mahvelous!”

And truly mean it. Because you are.

See if any of the 10 habit change mistakes above sound familiar. Use the action steps to avoid them, and plan habit change for life support. We need to be rooted to embark upon habit change that will last. All we have to do is prepare the mind.

Prepare The Mind

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DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She sees the myriad of people who jump into habit change without grounding themselves. She says,

“No matter our education, no matter our common sense; if we don’t prepare our minds for our task, we can easily get side tracked. I’m not saying we have to go to an ashram to center ourselves. I am saying we have to settle ourselves in some way before we make a decision that will have lasting results. Otherwise, the decision may be perpetrated by a tornado of feelings and our poorly built foundation may begin to crack.

“All we need do is take a pensive moment. This will help us to avoid most of the 10 habit change mistakes we have covered and maintain the habits that are suitable for our lives.”

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Pesticides-Which Fruits-Veggies Have Least?

PESTICIDES: WHICH FRUITS AND VEGGIES HAVE THE LEAST? (ISSUE 103)

By Diane Gold

Pesticides: which fruits and veggies have the least?

Agricultural PesticidesThe Environmental Protection Agency (epa.gov) regulates pesticides, but the amounts it allows in our fruits and vegetables is not so easy for the lay person to evaluate. Partly because we don’t have the time to look up the more than 1055 approved pesticides in use in the US and partly because the EPA is not offering the easiest chart for consumers.     Agricultural Pesticides

The first sentence on the EPA website says,

“Laboratory studies show that pesticides can cause health problems such as birth defects, nerve damage, cancer  and other effects that might occur over a long period of time. However, these effects depend on how toxic the pesticide is and how much of it is consumed. Some pesticides pose unique health risks to children.”

To the average consumer, you and me, this is far from helpful. The EPA mentions lots is serious ailments that “can” be caused by pesticides “that might occur over a long period of time” [… depending] “on how toxic the pesticide is and how much of it is consumed.”

Noncommittal

Well, that’s noncommital.

 

 

 

 

We want simplified facts that will help us understand the pesticide discussion.

ARE WE FOCUSING ON THE WRONG THING?

There’s a parallel between what’s happening in the pesticide discussion and what’s happening in GMO (genetically modified organism) discussion. We are looking at whether or not to label that GMOs are present, rather than discussing how they are harmful to us or the environment, why not to use them at all and how we are going to do definitive research on what damage they do to whom. Instead of labeling THAT there are GMOs present in a product, a more appropriate warning label similar to that previously used on cigarettes, might be introduced, saying,

“Genetically modified organisms may be hazardous to your health.”

The food industry would not like that, so they are happy to debate about whether or not to put the disclosure label on the product, defocusing the unsuspecting.
How many remember the days when cigarette labels said,

“Smoking may be hazardous to your health?”

And now?

“Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and may complicate pregnancy.”

With pesticides, we are boasting how legitimate the pesticide approval process is and listing which pesticides are present in which food. What would be more beneficial to our health and future generations would be to talk about methods of farming without toxins and educating people on the huge presence of pesticides and avoidance techniques.

WHAT WE WANT TO KNOW ABOUT OUR FOOD

We, as consumers, want useful information in qualitative numbers we can understand. We want to see how much of what food will hurt us.

BlueberriesWhatsonmyfood.org gives us some excellent information about the presence of pesticides on foods. It takes its info from the US Department of Agriculture, Pesticide Data Program, currently using 2005 data. For example, it lists that blueberries have a particular percentage of all blueberries in the US, on average, have pesticides A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, AA, BB, CC, DD, EE, FF, GG, HH, II, JJ, KK, LL, MM, NN, OO, PP, QQ, RR, SS, TT, UU, VV, WW, XX and YY present. It would be great if we could easily find a table showing the EPA tolerances (amount of pesticides that are permitted to be present and still be safe for consumption) for each of those pesticides.

HOW WE GET EXPOSED

Before we get to the special charts that help us decide what to buy, let’s look at the fact that there are more than 1055 (EPA) pesticides approved in the US. We ingest them, we inhale them, and we can absorb them through our skin. Just think of all the places they are used: in our homes to prevent mold or mildew, on our pets to prevent fleas, on our lawns or golf courses, on our roadways for maintenance so we can see the signs and road, around entertainment areas so they are manicured. Some farmland pesticides make their way into our drinking water, and, of course they are on our foods. If our occupation is picking fruits or veggies, our exposure is massively multiplied, and side effects are more obvious.

GROUNDWATER DETAIL

Because of the abundance of cows used in agriculture and no sewage system for their waste, groundwater contamination has been found. Even if workers use manure as fertilizer or dig a hole for what they can’t use, some of the bad bacteria live on in some water supplies.

THE GOOD NEWS

The Good NewsThe Environmental Working Group has created a consumer guides that lists which top fruits and veggies have the most and least pesticides so that we can choose how to spend our money and ingest fewer pesticides. This group is the environmental health and advocacy organization whose work resulted in the Food Quality Protection Act in 1996.

They have researched and created the consumer guides, DIRTY DOZEN PLUS and CLEAN 15. The first lists fruits and vegetables that have high pesticide content and, when possible, organic produce is recommended. The second list contains produce that, on average, has fewer residual pesticides and can be bought conventionally. It’s always best to buy organic produce, but these guides can help us make educated choices should we need to spend less than an all-organic purchase would cost.

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DIRTY DOZEN PLUS, 2013, from ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP
ApplesAPPLES

CELERY

CHERRY TOMATOES

CUCUMBERS

GRAPES

HOT PEPPERS

KALE/COLLARD GREENSKale

NECTARINES, IMPORTED

PEACHES

 

POTATOESPotatoes

SPINACH

STRAWBERRIES

SWEET BELL PEPPERS

ZUCCHINI

CLEAN 15, 2013, from ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP

ASPARAGUSASparagus

AVOCADO

CABBAGE

CANTALOUPE

CORN (almost all corn is grown from genetically modified seeds to resist pests, so pesticides are not necessary, but what are we really eating?)

EGGPLANT

GRAPEFRUIT

KIWI

MANGO

MUSHROOMSMushrooms

ONIONS

PAPAYA

PINEAPPLEPIneapple

SWEET PEAS, FROZEN

SWEET POTATOES

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CONCLUSION

Pesticide Presence By State, 2002Pesticides are here, both on organic and conventional produce. Synthetic pesticides can burn the mouth, lungs, the respiratory system, cause nerve damage, cause skin to peel or change color, cause temporary blindness when exposure is high. Hopefully, we are never exposed to enough at once to cause anything like this. But it makes us think about how safe pesticides are in smaller quantities on our food.

Thanks to the two guides we have presented, Dirty Dozen Plus and Clean 15, we can begin to integrate this information into our buying power and our lives.

ACTION STEPS

1) Be aware of the information presented in the lists starting now and every time you go to the store.

2) Be diligent about avoiding the purchase of those on the list.

3) If purchasing all organic produce is not possible financially, make adjustments based on the lists to maximize it. This is a good way to save on the correct foods.

4) Check the Environmental Working Group every year, since they have been publishing yearly guides.

5) Now that we have outlined the prevalence of pesticides, make other sacrifices so that you can give yourself the gift of great food.

Reach Out

6) Be healthy, and reach out if you need  me.

 

 

 

FEEDBACK

Please leave  a comment and LIKE.

DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

Pesticides are always a concern. She says,

“Although organic farmers can use a variety of possibly unhealthy pesticides, I would rather eat those than the petrochemicals used in conventional produce. Plus, I would probably not be getting GMO seed-produce with organic food. At least, that’s what ‘they’ say.

“The list of ‘to buy’ nd ‘not to buy’ produce is pretty interesting. It makes sense that pesticides would remain in leafy green veggies and would not enter inside the skin of avocado or grapefruit.

“Certainly, I will get to know the list, especially since I always buy conventional products that are waxed, unless the distributor has personally told me beeswax is not used on waxed organics.

“I’ll be washing my cucumbers more diligently, and I will be on the lookout for an organic farmer who does not wax her cukes.

“I am grateful for the produce guides. They will help many people, including me.”

6 Great Reasons For Plant-Based Nutrition

6 GREAT REASONS FOR PLANT-BASED-NUTRITION (ISSUE 102)

By Diane Gold

Plant-Based Nutrition is being recommended more and more by medical personnel, used more by knowledgeable consumers and being more truthfully researched through scientific studies, every day experience and understanding the role of advertising paid for by the pharmaceutical and food industries.

1) HEALTH

WasherAnimal protein is known to clog arteries. Plant-based is not known to do this.
I always picture the old-style washing machine with the front loading door where we can see the water level sloshing around. Except, with animal protein, the liquid has more grease. The circular door could represent the cell of an animal protein eater.

Studies suggest that vegan diets store less fat which balances sugar, reduce cholesterol and tri-glycerides in the blood and reduce obesity, according to Kaiser Permanente’s latest article. They cite the 2006 Berkow and Barnard review of 87 studies, the result of which they published in the Nutrition Reviews, which stated that vegan or vegetarian diets are “highly effective for weight loss.” Plant-based diet can reduce the amount of medication needed for chronic disease.

To look at plant-based nutrition, Kaiser did a single case study done. They studied an overweight 63-year-old diabetic man with high blood pressure and high cholesterol on several drugs. The physician made some drug and insulin modifications and changed his food intake to a low-sodium vegan diet. Everything dramatically became healthier, and his prescription drugs were reduced to one.

Because this is a single study, it is not as noteworthy as if there were 100 participants. It is still significant, though. As I have mentioned in past articles, studies are expensive and setting them up takes lots of time, people power and money. Unfortunately, the larger they are, the more credibility they hold. So, we always look for the big study, such as the 6000 person study showing the benefits of plant-based nutrition, the China Study, done by T. Colin Campbell, the father of modern nutrition.

2) HEALTH CARE COSTS

Pharmaceuticals If people are healthier and use less medical services, less pharmaceuticals; they will reduce their own personal costs. They will also reduce the pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturing rate as well as the distribution and transportation costs which are 1.5 to 4.5% of their sale price, according to Transportation Journal, Jan., 2005.

There is solid evidence that plant-based nutrition can improve health.

 

3) EDUCATION

Because there is lots of untimely disease, and much of it is obvious like obesity; there is lots of new evidence about the benefits of plant-based diets and the latest stories are about the power of plants as nutrition. More and more credible sources are being quoted with astounding health results. When we learn, we consider making changes. If we are open, we may wonder why so many people are moving toward plant-based nutrition.

We might also want to consider that we are creatures of habit, and we get some of our education from media, good or bad. IF media is swayed by the powerful food and pharmaceutical industries to write about the goodness of animal protein so we buy milk, meat and drugs for our illnesses, we might be convinced that plant-based nutrition is not for humans, might make us sick and is for quacks. IF media is swayed by a few diligent researchers who have studies hailing plant-based nutrition or a few hippies and athletes whose health is impeccable because they grow their own wheatgrass, we might hear stories about how green food is beautiful. Since media gets large advertising dollar from the food and drug industry, it is important to weigh carefully the material we read.

NOTE ABOUT REQUIRED DAILY INTAKE

We have depended upon the National Academy of Sciences’ Recommended Daily Intake on vitamins, since 1941. They have updated their recommendations only 10 times, the last being in 1989. In 1995, they created a more detailed recommendation system.

Although the Academy is a private, non-profit corporation, board membership includes former employees of pharmaceutical and food companies and funding to the Academy make come from anywhere. (There was recently a case where the American Academy of Pediatrics endorsed and published guidelines for an acne drug. The funding for the process was paid for by drug companies, and 13 of the 15 consultants or speakers on the project worked for the drug companies.
It is a little disconcerting that the checks and balances system of fairness doesn’t disqualify people with previous allegiances from certain kinds of involvement.

4) ETHICS

Dog RescueIf we could avoid running over a dog or cat in the road, would we do it? Of course, we would. In the same way, if we transitioned to a plant-based diet, we would be doing just that. We would automatically be eliminating the need for the animal industry to replace food we just ate. This means we would slow down the process of using animals for food, which, more times than we would like to think, abuses, terrorizes and mutilates animals. Although there are hard, honest workers in the animal food industry, if there are other choices, can we make them?

NOTE

Did you know that dairy cows, if left to graze naturally, live 25 years? The dairy cows used in industry live to be five. The answer to the question,

“What’s wrong with that?”

is a personal one. I think it’s wrong if there are other food source options easily available.

5) CLEAN AND LIGHT

Clean And Light FeelingAnother reason for considering a plant-based diet (or its direction) is personal to me. Therefore, please consider this in evaluating it.

There is one feeling I have never experienced from food before my current vegan eating: feeling clean of body. There is never a big lump in my stomach as I remember happens to me with meat, chicken, fish or dairy.

It’s been a long time since I have eaten meat, but only about four years since I have eaten dairy. There is a distinct difference now. My 39 years of lacto-ovo-vegetarianism (minus two short meat periods as an attempt to simplify the household), did not feel the way I feel now.

Four years into a vegan diet, I feel clean after every meal. I feel as if my body is ingesting the right combination of food, especially if several vegetables and a combination of cooked and raw food are used.

The body also feels light, even if I eat an abundant amount of vegetables and healthy grains. After the thick smoothie with fruit, seeds, nuts, hemp and flax milk; the feeling I have is light.

I am lucky and grateful to have the opportunity to eat this way at this time. I cherish it.

6) SUSTAINABILITY

In the American Journal For Clinical Nutrition, 2003, David and Marcia Pimentel give some statistics. The grain produced to feed livestock for food is 7 X the amount of grain Americans eat and is enough to feed 840 million people who follow a plant-based diet. That’s enough to feed all the hungry of the world.

According to PETA (People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals), it takes 11 X as much fossil fuel to make one calorie of animal protein as it does to make one calorie of plant protein. 11 X. That’s 13 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of meat and 5 pounds of wild-caught fish to produce 1 pound of farmed fish flesh.

Also according to PETA, it takes 2400 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat and 25 gallons of water to grow 1 pound of wheat.

Last is a shocker. Animals raised for food produce 89,000 pounds of fecal matter per second. The EPA has reported that 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states have been polluted. Groundwater in 17 states has been contaminated.

CONCLUSION

With all the discussion about whether animal protein or plant-based nutrition is good, we, as consumers, are getting educated. We are realizing the lack of nutrition education in every school is a deficit. Yes, we learn to plant tomatoes on land or in window boxes. But knowing what to eat and why is standard information for all of us. Learning how animal-based vs. plant-based diets affect the environment is also our responsibility. Hopefully, our discoveries will lead us to place plant-based nutrition in our schools and our lives.

The reasons above given in support of plant-based nutrition are there for the reader to ponder. In the meantime, here are a few action steps for everyone.

ACTION STEPS

1) Consider eliminating one packaged item of food for one week. If you last through the week, extend for another. At the end of the second week, make it a third. If this works, maintain it.

Packaged Good2) At the same time as you eliminate the one packaged item, replace it with one in-season apple, cubed. If the item you eliminated goes in a main dish, substitute the apple there, either cooked or raw. Likewise for a side dish. Buy organic apples when possible since high pesticide loads are known to be found in conventional apples. When organics are not available, foreign apples may have less pesticides.     Packaged Good

3) At the end of the first week, second or third week, eliminate another packaged item, depending upon the success with step 1), following the same steps outlined in 1).

4) At the same time as you eliminate the second packaged item, replace it with the juice of a freshly squeezed lime. Personally, I do not buy organic limes because they are usually sprayed with beeswax. It is said that most of the pesticide is concentrated in the peel which we don’t usually eat.

5) Consider the apple and the lime juice as you eat it. Yummy, right?

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FEEDBACK

Please leave  a comment and LIKE.

DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She has been studying how foods interacts with the body and mind. She says,

“Nutrition and the way we digest are very involved processes because each function has so many variables and we each can react in a different way to the same interaction. That’s why it is so difficult to come up with the one way to eat.

“I have shared some interesting ideas that I think are important. If they stimulate your desire to become more knowledgeable, I am happy.

“We each live our lives according to principles we choose based on habits we have formed and information we have gathered. It is my hope that one of the next times you eat, you will start making it a habit to be conscious of how the food benefits your overall health.”

Is Sugar Good For Our Health?

IS SUGAR GOOD FOR OUR HEALTH? (ISSUE 101)

By Diane Gold

Glucagon (pancreatic hormone) stimulates conversion of glycogen to glucose to blood stream.

Insulin (pancreatic hormone) decreases glucose in the blood by sending it to muscle cells or converting it back to glycogen for storage.

Those concepts are so complicated because each hormone has many functions of than those listed above, and their task of working to create a continual glucose balance in our bodies is affected by all those other functions and more. They are only two of the body’s sugar reaction processes.

Putting a large amount of sugar into our bodies tells our bodies to produce insulin to reduce the overload. This means the body will send some of that sugar to our muscles for energy and some will be stored in the liver. When there is a small amount of sugar in the blood stream, for example, after insulin has moved it and converted it; glucagon is released to go get some from the glycogen storage tanks in the liver.Is Sugar Good For Our Health?

 

So, is sugar good for our health?

 

A little more background first, please.

BLOOD SUGAR ROLLER COASTER

This process of reducing and increasing the glucose supply in the body is sometimes referred to as the blood sugar roller coaster. It is caused by eating too much sugar (all of which turns to glucose). It is also caused by eating processed and packaged foods that leave the body devoid of nutrients because not having the right nutrients will cause insulin resistance and other malfunctions. One common way is to cause a lack of sensitivity to insulin, which, in turn, can cause glucose to be stored as fat which causes more insulin to be produced, the insulin roller coaster and weight gain.

THE DRUG ADDICT EFFECT

At the time the body is overloaded with sugar, the body will experience a feeling similar to a drug rush. We’ve all heard of keeping sugars away from children at night because they will get high on sugar and not go to sleep.

Here is a quote from a prestigious researcher, Marcia Pelchat, PhD, scientist at Monell Chemical Senses Center, world-class research center in Philadelphia that studies taste and smell. The animals she refers to are those used in researching sugar addiction. She says,

“There are the same kinds of changes in brain dopamine in these animals given intermittent access to sugar, as in drug addicts.”

Ice CreamThis makes complete sense from a visceral point of view. Let’s say we have not had cake, cookies, candy, ice cream for a while because we always eat too much or because we have heard sugar is bad. What happens when we have some?

I can give personal credence to Pelchat’s quote above. When I take one bite of sweet food and let the flavor permeate my mouth, I want more. Once I have another bite, I want even more. The craving I feel for the sugar food feels the same as it does for a drug or alcohol, except I can feel my urge growing stronger with every bite, as if I am feeding an urge machine inside myself.

When I buy favorite flavors of coconut milk ice cream, I know the entire half pint will be gone in the same day. Even if I haven’t had a sweet food for months, that’s just how it goes, unless I control myself, which I see no need for, since I only eat sweets on rare occasions. It also helps that I’m vegan, and so much of the sweet foods are no temptation since they are not vegan-appropriate for me.

When I have no dessert-y foods, I am fine, since I savor the sugars in my vegetables (especially steamed spinach, believe it or not). When I have sugar, I want more. It feels the same as any other cravings, but expert research differs on addiction to sugar.

Pelchat mentioned the analgesic effect on pain when babies drink sweet solutions. This reminds me of the drastically calming effect apple cider had on me last week after I came home from a psychically traumatizing MRI test. I completely relate to her statement, here, too.

SUGAR ADDICTION

Mark Hyman, MD, wrote in the Huffington Post, about a June 13, 2013 study first published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that shows sugar addiction is a biological reality. A group of young men, 18 to 35, drank a milkshake and had their blood, glucose, insulin and hunger levels checked after four hours. They came back two weeks later to have another milkshake that tasted exactly the same with the same protein, fat, carbs, calories, macronutrients, taste yet the glycemic index of the second shake was much higher. The result was the part of the brain that controls addiction,

“Their nucleus accumbens, lit up like a Christmas tree,”

said Hyman, paraphrasing from the study.

So the brain could tell the difference even though the taste buds could not. And the high glycemic ingredients caused hunger and huge biological reaction in the addiction control panel of the brain. Looks like addiction. Feels like addiction. More research will cement the idea.

THE SUGAR INDUSTRY

Sugar PlantationAccording to some old US Department of Commerce sales reports, researched, converted to approximate consumption and infographed by Stephen Guyenet, an obesity researcher at University of Washington, B.S., biochemistry, PhD, neurophysiology, and Jeremy Landen, as of 2012, we consumed approximately 100 pounds of sugar per year. In 1822, we consumed 6.3 pounds per person per year. Another way of looking at it is that in 1822, we consumed the equivalent of a can of cola’s worth of sugar in five days. Now, we consume that number in seven hours. That’s 19 times an increase.

Here’s how consume so much. Sugary substances form glucose in the body. Many substances are sugar but have a different name, so we are not even aware we are ingesting them. When we read a label, we may be missing a term. And what happens when we don’t bother reading it? Even worse, if a product has a label and is not fresh, whole food, why are we eating it, anyway?

THE EMORY U AND CDC STUDY, 2010

On April 20, 2010, Emory University and the Center For Disease Control published a study in the Journal Of The American Medical Association showing that added sugars from processed foods and beverages may increase cardiovascular disease risk factors. The study involved 6000 people between 1999 and 2006. Miriam Vos,  co-author, MD, MSPH, clarifies that the study was cross-sectional, and the participants’ data was taken once. She says,

“We found that people eat an average of about 21 teaspoons per day of added sugars. And that level of sugar was associated with increased cardiovascular disease risk.

“In our study, we looked at a range of consumption of added sugar ranging from 5% per day to greater than 25% of calories per day. … And what we found was the best cholesterol levels were in people eating 5 or 6 teaspoons of sugar per day or less.”

NOTE

There are several reputable studies that put our daily average sugar consumption at 10 or 15 teaspoons higher than the Emory study.

SUGAR LABELING

Sugar Cane According to the FDA’s  food labeling provisions, not all sugars are required to be listed. Currently, regulation 101.9(c)(6)ii requires that the sugars that must be counted within the labeling system are mono- and disaccharides. That means glucose, fructose,  lactose, sucrose. All other sugars may be included voluntarily. That includes fiber and sugar alcohols such as sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol.

Here’s a food-for-thought comment from someone on a health blog. The commentor cited correctly that maltodextrin does not count within the nutritional term sugar on a food label because it is not a simple sugar. He goes on to say,

“Can you see how a savvy food manufacturer might use this to [its] advantage? Perhaps by replacing some of the “sugar” with refined starches [like maltodextrin]– still just as sweet, still just as much Blood Glucose effect — while being able to claim (very loudly),

‘Now with less added sugar!'”Glucose

SUGARS

Here is a good list of sugars we may encounter:

Agave nectar, barley malt syrup, beet sugar, brown rice syrup, brown sugar, cane crystals, cane juice crystals, cane sugar, coconut sugar, coconut palm sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, dehydrated cane juice, dextrin, dextrose, evaporated can juice, fructose, fruit juice concentrate, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltodextrin, maltose, maple syrup, molasses, palm sugar, raw sugar, rice syrup, saccarose, sorghum, sorghum syrup, stevia, sucrose, syrup, treacle, turbinado sugar, xylitol, xylose.

Let’s not forget that most corn or corn product in the United States is made from genetically modified seed, unless it is certified organic. That means some of the sugar substances are definitely genetically modified (GMO), and our research is needed there, too.

The industry wants to sell product. That is its first responsibility. Our health comes second. That’s what’s common. Therefore, it is our responsibility to be informed about what counts on a label, what is a sugary substance and whether it helps our health.

CONCLUSION

Sugar ChoicesRegulation of sugar intake is good. Knowing what sugary substances we ingest is great. If we don’t stress our bodies by putting them through the sugar roller coaster, we are better off. If our bodies react poorly to high sugar intake, we can notice it. Is sugar bad for our health? It depends upon which kind of sugar, the condition of our health, how much and our lifestyle.

Unhealthy food is always bad for us. This would mean any processed, artificial anything can’t be the best choice to make. So much of what many of us eat includes fake sugar or processed sweetener. These can’t be the best choice. At least, now, we know that there are many words for “sugar,” and most of them are not required to be included in the sugar content on a label. Which means that we have to be careful to do our own research after reading a label. And we should remember that many of the corn sweeteners are GMO.

So, the subject of whether sugar is bad for our health is complex. It depends upon us, and it depends upon what form of sugar we use. The least amount of processed sugar, of course, is the best. Organic is best. Fruits and vegetables are sweet. They give us the sugar we need without processing. If we keep being diligent about what we consume, we will keep improving our awareness and our health. Then we will be able to answer the question for ourselves from the inside out.

ACTION STEPS

1) Notice how you feel after eating something very sweet, and write it down.

2) Roughly calculate how much sugar you consume as added sugar, meaning not the sugar in your fruits and vegetables. A great site to look at is http://sugarstacks.com. It shows how many sugar cubes each sugar food equals.

Since labels, give sugar values in grams, note that 1 tsp. = approx. 4 g of sugar.

3) a) If you have difficulty in stopping sweet consumptions, eliminate Monday sweets for two weeks.

3) b) Eliminate Friday sweets for two weeks, continuing with the eliminated sweet from Monday.

3) c) After the first four weeks, remove sweets on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, continuing this regime for a month.

3) d) Cut out sweets on Saturdays. That means no sweets Monday through Saturday for a month. If necessary, add Wednesdays back in.

3) e) Now, three months later, notice how you feel after your Sunday sweet; write it down. Compare to the first day.

OPTION

If you’re like me, your cravings may require you to decide to stop all sweets and plan on a sweet once a month. Having the sweet once a week would create too large a craving in me unless I abstained for three to six months first.
_____

We are good for our health as long as we make great choices.

Gold Divider

FEEDBACK

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DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She has been researching a sugar article for some time. She says,

“Although the process by which the body turns our foods into usable nutrients is extremely complex, I decided to put out a few facts about sugar. The sensitive nature of the hormones and neurotransmitters involved in our body processes needs special care to work properly.

“The more labelless foods we consume, the better off we are. If we’re reading a label, we’re probably looking at food in a package, which, by nature, along with processed foods, has fewer nutrients and artificially inflated nutrients. It’s always a good idea to eat fresh food, so any package might be a mistake, most of the time. We should be good to ourselves and eat fresh, unprocessed, organic food. And it’s also a good idea to know our sugar intake.

“As far as answering the question,

‘Is sugar good for our health?’

“hopefully, the background information above is helpful in arriving at the answer.”

3 Habit Changes That Turn Sickness Into Health!

3 HABIT CHANGES THAT TURN SICKNESS INTO HEALTH! (ISSUE 99)

By Diane Gold

Sick GirlWe are often not aware of sickness habits or wellness habits. For the most part, when we’re sick, we are consumed with feeling sick. Hopefully, you can’t relate to this feeling, but most of us can and do. And when we are well, we are not thinking about sickness.

When sick, we can be dizzy, nauseated, have pressure in our head, be too hot, too cold, be perspiring, achy and itchy. Along with that, we are often anxious that we are sick,  especially if we and our health professionals cannot diagnose us.

SicknessSo far, the only times I have been sick have happened in the past couple of years since I turned 60. And both times, my “specialist” physicians could give me no definitive cause for what I was feeling. That did prompt me to pine for a non-fiction version of Dr. House, MD, the TV series diagnostician, extraordinaire and gave me a bit of anxiety. I even wrote an article about it which you can access at the end of this article.

HABIT A) DROOPING HEAD

When we are sick, we are hiding from the world; light may hurt our eyes. We, like toddlers, think that if we are not looking up, the sickness we are experiencing will disappear. When we’re dizzy, as I have been for a good five days, we’re looking for some relieving position. So, anything goes. Or does it?

When we drop the head, we may cause the airway (the trachea) to become compressed, although, the cartilage around it ultimately protects it. The neck becomes strained because the head is not being supported correctly by the neck muscles, and the head is weighty.

ONLINE RESEARCH

I discovered a video this past week when, not being able to get an appointment with an ear, nose and throat specialist, I needed a do-it-myself how-to video on the repositioning technique for dizziness.

The maneuver, specifically for the diagnosis, Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, BPPV, with which I have not been diagnosed (yet), requires the patient to turn the head in a specific way for a few minutes and then keep the head straight, in one position, for 48 hours.

SUspended Head Tai ChiWhat I realized immediately was that the position of the proposed 48-hour position of the head was the suspended head position we teach in tai chi that brings stability to the region, allows the most oxygen to freely flow to the lungs, taxes the neck less than any other position and allows the most alertness and focus. It maintains tai chi principle by keeping the bones and body in proper alignment. It turns out it also helps to alleviate dizziness.

What did I realize? That because I was sick, my head was drooping in that “woe is me” posture and causing more sickness than health and maneuver immediately brought more air flow to me through realignment.

Picture a bobblehead on a dashboard in a 1960’s movie. In the old days, the head would be able to vibrate because a very springy wire connected the head to the body. Now, more durable plastic is used, and there’s less visible separation between the head and the body. But the trachea of this imaginary bobblehead person was never compressed because the head could not tilt forward. The spine of this imaginary person could not be compressed because the head could not tilt backwards. It could only maintain one position, that of maximum alignment and the most stability to the neck region. I stayed in the position for at least four hours and felt good, realizing that drooping my head had been slowing my healing.

ACTION STEPS

Neck
1) Aim the top of the head toward the ceiling, and keep it there throughout these steps.

2) Pull the head back from the lower hairs of the rear of the neck without tilting the head as if avoiding a sharp object pointed at the front of the center of the neck.

3) Notice how that position feels good.

4) Notice a freedom of the circulation of air in the body.

5) Notice whether quick turns add to discomfort, and be slow.

6) When you find you are slumping the head, go back to placing the head in the suspended head position again. Be diligent.

HABIT B) NOT EATING OR DRINKING

Nutritious Food When we are sick, we may be nauseated, and we may not feel hungry. If we don’t eat, unfortunately, we will deplete our body nutrients.
Many people who want to lose weight think that during sickness is a fabulous time not to eat because the body will consume less calories and come out skinnier. Sounds like a plan, but no, it is not a good one.

The body needs what it needs. Feeling or not feeling like giving nourishment to it has nothing to do with the fact that the body needs what it needs. Yes, our bodies are sensitive if we feed them well; and the body may tell us when it demands less. But, when we feel sick, our immune system is telling us to maintain foods that enhance it, like green leafy, alkalizing wheatgrass and cruciferous veggies, citrus fruits, antioxidants, vitamin E, zinc, echinacea, tea and good, old carbs for fuel.

Reduction dieting is best during wellness.

ACTION STEPS

1) Drink one glass of water every hour or so. If it is difficult to get it down, keep drinking as much as possible. Hydration helps the body heal Keep it to a minimum of one glass every three hours, if you are having trouble with the recommended amount.

Ezekiel bread2) If you have the energy, eat normally. It’s easier if you have someone who will provide food for you while you rest. It may be necessary to purchase or have someone purchase foods that are partially or fully prepared for you, if getting up to prepare food is not an option. If you’re on your own, make sure to eat two pieces of Ezekiel bread with olive oil on them, if possible. Accompany this with at least one full glass water. Two is better if you can handle it.

HABIT C) SHOULDER SLUMP

When we are sick, we tend to slump. We may feel we don’t have the energy to hold ourselves up. This is because we are expending our energy on the pain, suffering, oddness we feel and posture is our last concern.

This results in back strain as we are folding in our spine. A bigger result is that our oxygen flow is limited. Of course, the stronger our lungs are, the better our air will circulate. But, if we are crunching up the body, we are making it harder for our lungs to do their job. Though we may think it’s the most relaxed position, it’s not the most healthy.

ACTION STEPS

We’ve all seen those distinguished grannies and gramps who we know are sick but show the picture of health so as not to worry the young ones or be a burden.

Distinguished Grannies1) Be those distinguished figures: not for the purpose of making impressions for the sake of others. No, when you’re sick, it’s about getting healthy. And it’s about healing by taking on the persona of those who have gone before.

2) Straighten that spine, even if you’re doing so in bed. I have taught many people who could not get out of bed. It’s a great place to work out, whether it’s physical or mental. Picture that the more you stretch it, the more you will heal yourself. It’s true.

CONCLUSION

Hopefully, we will be more healthy than sick. There is a vast amount of digital research available to us that might be beneficial to review. Discussing what we find with a medical professional is always preferable, if possible, but, until that time, reading information may offer relief, as it did with me.

The habit changes are not new revelations. However, when we are feeling off, sick, terrible, pain or dizzy; we may forget the body principles we know to be healthy for us.

We know to keep our head in an erect position. We know to nourish and hydrate. We know to maintain a straight spine. During times of body stress, such as sickness, we need to train ourselves to be conscious of these things. Probably every time we are sick, we must be aware, since the discomfort will pull us away from what we know to be healthy.

Wellness HabitsMay we all have more healthy days than sick, and may we take responsibility for turning sickness into health.

As promised, here’s the link to the article Looking For Dr. House: http://snurl.com/dr_house, for your information.

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FEEDBACK

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DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She believes it is our responsibility to act on behalf of our own health. She says,

“Whether we have the best medical professional or not, unless we pay for concierge medical service, we do not have instant access to her/him. When we become sick, it’s our duty to ourselves to work on our own behalf. There are many things we can do to help ourselves. It’s our responsibility to do them.

“When we wait, we should develop the ammunition of knowledge necessary to protect our bodies as best we can on our own. Posture and nutrition are always a part. Hopefully the three simple habit changes mentioned here can impact the way we treat ourselves and inspire us to turn our sickness into health.”

The One Secret To Habit Change: Get It And Use It!

THE ONE SECRET TO HABIT CHANGE: GET IT AND USE IT! (ISSUE 97)

By Diane Gold

The SecretThere is one secret to habit change. We don’t need to be college-educated to understand it. We don’t have to have been brought up in a wealthy home to use it. It is the same in every country. It applies to every habit. We all know the concept as it applies to daily life. Yet, it’s still a secret.

Before we spell it out for you, let’s look at the characteristics of habit change. We have three ingredients: the URGE, which is the itch or cue that we want to experience a particular pleasurable feeling; the ACTION, which is whatever is done in response to the urge; and the REWARD, which is the glorious feeling of pleasure we get from the action we chose to take after we had the urge.

Act Within 5 SecondsIn order to hear it, we must be ready at this very moment to realize its truth; and that if we don’t make it a priority in our lives, we will go another way. Easiest is best, and that’s upon what this secret is based.

Are you ready? Here it is.
In order to eliminate lots of wasted time from roller coaster habit change work, act within 5 seconds of feeling the urge. And you will have the easiest road ahead. I’m not saying it’s easy, but I am saying this method makes it easier. Simple, right?

Let’s look at a few examples.

Instant MotionPicture the situation where we get an urge to eat cake. We are on a strict regimen not to include cake in our food plan. If we don’t act with instant motion within five seconds of the urge, we have already given ourselves time enough to plan which way we will walk to the cake store, passing an Automatic Teller Machine along the way, since we keep no cash with us to avoid running out to buy food. Oops, we forgot about the ATM card. Or figuring out how to run up an account with the local grocer if we have no cash, if we have remembered not to have an ATM card around.

[Note to self: if not already done, place the ATM card in the safety deposit box.]

If we do act within five seconds, we can dissipate our urge and have one more experience of staying within our food plan.

Here’s another.

Join Our BuddiesImagine it’s the end of the work day, we are closing up our store and start getting the urge to join all our buddies across the street and drink alcohol. Yet, we know, at this time, we have decided to abstain from alcohol because it does not support us. So, when we feel that craving, we have a choice: we can act within 5 seconds and take a new action that does not involve alcohol OR wait and go drink alcohol, a behavior we already know is not working for us. If the people at the pub are really our buddies, we will see them later, not in the bar.

This urge and this situation have happened to me more times than I can count. My live-in boyfriend had left work early and was always at the bar. So, my mind did its jealousy dance about his having alcohol and fun without me or having more alcohol than I was having. Crazy, right, that I would be jealous of someone else’s having more substance than I? Crazy, but true. Vividly, jealousy green, true.

The only way for me to replace this cycle was for me to act IMMEDIATELY before I thought about alcohol, jealousy, whatever else my crafty mind came up with. If I didn’t act quickly, I’d be sucked into the old habit behavior.

And finally, a last example follows.

Let’s say I had stopped smoking cigarettes for a year. And no one smoked around my job or house. One day, I was taking a walk in the metro area, and someone who was smoking passed me by. I got a whiff of smoke and instantly wanted to smoke. Without instant action, I would be urged to bum a cigarette from that very person. That would start the old familiar cycle of smoking which was the familiar behavior I knew that satisfied the craving for smoking. When I moved quickly and took a different action, I learned how to create new rewards with my different actions, and the urge to smoke went away again.

CONCLUSION

Window Of OpportunityWe have a very short window of opportunity in which to execute the one secret to habit change. It’s usually in that five second range that we must act. If we don’t take a new action within that time, we will habitually do our old behavior. And changing our habit will wait on the sidelines another day.

Think about it. What happens when we procrastinate? Nothing new. If we do nothing new to change our habit, we will gravitate toward what we know: our old habit. Most of us know our old habit with our eyes closed because we have repeated it so often.

It requires focus to take a new step. The more we take that step, though, the more it replaces our old action. If we do it once, it’s a novelty. If we do it twice, we see its merits. If we carry it out a third, fourth, fifth time; it becomes more natural, although usually it requires 21 days for the mind to accept the new behavior as becoming a possible replacement.

ACTION STEP

The one action we will take when we feel an urge works for all kinds of habits. It can’t hurt us either. It can only help.

We will drink water, two glasses, eight to twelve ounces each, as soon as we feel our urge to fulfill our old craving, no matter what it is. The act of drinking water dissipates any of the oral addictions biologically, such as eating, alcohol drinking, drugging, smoking. It has the following effects on all habits.

Perspective1) It physically dilutes the blood so that the usual amount of substance (food, alcohol, drug) cannot produce the same reward.
Perspective

2) It changes our mental perspective so that we are no longer focused on whatever we were focused on before we drank the water.

3) It changes our emotional status because it has a calming effect.

4) It teaches us a technique we can use almost anywhere), at any time, as long as we are in a place fortunate enough to have freely running water.

5) It is our first habit change buddy, always loyal, never a flat leaver, always faithful.

Secret MagicDo it. It is massively impactful, requires little activity, not much effort other than the effort of doing magic on or tricking one’s own mind. And it works on all the urges to a large degree.

May the change be with you!

____________________________________________________________________

FEEDBACK

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DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She has used the one secret to habit change many a time and would like to see it go public. She says,

“Habits are learned by repeating one behavior, over and over again. If we were Vulcans (from Star Trek) and had no emotions, we’d have no trouble taking the secret step at any time and adjusting our behaviors.

“Because we are not Vulcans and are so attached to our emotions, cravings, urges, desires, passions; each behavior is motivated by many emotions. Thus, we need boldly to move ourselves to the new behavior, whether our emotions agree or not. This takes focus. If we put on horse blinders, we would have an easier time. Although the very idea might diminish our self-esteem, another important emotion; so we don’t use them.

“The secret to habit change is water, two glasses. Let’s make an effort to drink it as a technique of change. It works and empowers, all by itself. Consider it. There’s nothing to lose.”

The 5 Biggest Mistakes Of Habit Change

THE 5 BIGGEST MISTAKES OF HABIT CHANGE (ISSUE 96)

By Diane Gold

What if we could boil down the 5 biggest mistakes of habit change? Could we use them to make changing habits easier? And out of them create the 5 Commandments Of Habit Change?

Everything we read, hear, experience, learn, touch, smell, feel helps in the change process. But we always have to work hard to make change. I have turned myself inside out more than once, and I believe it to be a worthwhile activity.

MISTAKE 1) Look at more than one habit at a time.Focus On One Habit At A Time

In order to succeed, we must focus. We need one-pointed mind.

Remember the quote in The Last Samurai, where the Japanese general tells Tom Cruise’s character,

“Too many mind. No mind,”

when he is training him in the sword? (Go to http://000chi.com to hear the quote.)
Focus On One Habit At A Time

He is referring to our ping pong ball minds. When we look at many things, we lose focus of all of them. When we look at one thing, we are able to focus on it. One Habit At A Time!

MISTAKE 2) Picture the end result instead of the first step.

Picturing The FIrst StepWhen learning to change a habit, looking too far ahead is usually a deal breaker. If we are looking at the end result, meaning that we changed our habit; it may look vast, overwhelming, impossible, certainly difficult that it’s quitting time, quitting the process of change, that is.

That’s why we only look at the very first step, whatever that step is for each of us at the moment. The first step is NOT the first step in the process. It is the one step directly in front of us. I realize that this same step may need to be done over and over and over again 25 times in one day. This depends upon how many times a cue, urge, trigger presents itself.

Here’s what I mean. Let’s say we decide that when we get the urge to __________, and I am leaving this blank so that any habit can be filled in; we will drink 16 ounces of water. We will also drink water before every meal. Supposedly, it’s difficult for the body to tell if it is hungry or thirsty, so water can fill us up, especially if we have the patience to wait 20 minutes (which most of us don’t) before we __________. Also, the act of drinking the water will change our focus from the ______________ to the water. It may be just enough to allow us not to ____________.

MISTAKE 3) Commit to change our habit forever.

Change A Habit For Today, Not ForeverWhen we decide we will change a habit forever, we are locking ourselves in a prison. To give up an old behavior is not as difficult if we tell ourselves that we might be able to go back to it at some point in the future. It makes it easier to start, and it is not as scary a process. Change A Habit For Today, Not Forever

It’s easier to say,

“I will do this today,”

than it is to say I will never do this again.

So, our change is for today, not for forever. One Urge At A Time.

MISTAKE 4) Stop doing the action that actually worked to get us to change our habit because we think it’s no longer necessary.

Stop How many times have we thought we had ourselves together, and we stopped behaving in the way that was working for us? We had changed our habit so long ago that we thought we could stop the technique that got us to change the habit?

This happens with the weight loss habit all day long. That’s why people lose weight for a year or five, then gain it back. That’s why substance abusers get clean for 10 years and then start their old behavior.

We can’t go to the track once; we can’t do drugs recreationally; we can’t eat chocolate cake for lunch. Because we will cause the cues to start hitting us in the head again. Kind of like a trigger on a gun that is broken. Every time it is fired, it cocks itself. And every time it is cocked, we have the itch to execute our old habit.

We can’t fight biology. Our habits live inside us, and we can’t take them out of us. We can choose to change a habit to make another dormant. If we stop the new, in most cases, we will revert back to the old way of behaving because it is so natural to us. That is why once we make a change, we have to maintain it for as long as we want the old habit to be hidden.

Here’s an example of how the habit of speaking one way reverts to an old way in a flash.

We speak with the accent of our region. The people around us sound the way we sound, and we sound the way they sound. No one in our region says we have an accent because we all speak similarly.

What happens if we move to a different region? According to our new neighbors, we have an accent. They sound like each other, and we don’t like them. People usually smile about it because we sound very much like the place from which we came. We smile, too.

So we end up living in the new region for about 10 years. And we start to sound more and more the way the people of the region sound. This is not really a phenomenon. It is a combination of:

Move To A Different Region

1) wanting to fit in even if this desire is unconscious. We are human and we like to fit in;

2) learning our new accent unconsciously through continually hearing the new region speech all the time and, finally,

3) making an effort to learn the accent of the region so that we can further call it home.
What happens if our best friend from back in our old region comes to visit? We instantly start to speak the dialect or accent of our old region. In a flash. We go out to town to introduce our best friend, and we are speaking the way we were when we first arrived.

Here’s the explanation.

We learned our original habit, our accent from where we were born.

We changed this habit, partly by choosing to fit in and partly through unconscious, auditory repetition.

We changed our habit back to the original habit in a heartbeat because all our habits are always ours.

We choose a new behavior so as not to express the old habit. When we don’t, our old habit comes out (usually). So we need to be diligent even if we have been doing the new habit caused by the new action/behavior for a decade or longer.

The story about the accent focuses on a habit that is not harmful. And, most of the time, the accent habit situation is harmless. But what about the following scenario?

SenatorImagine a U.S. Senator whose family members all speak street language. She was the only member of the family to go to school. She was raised on “ain’t,” “anyways,” “nucular energy,” “athalete,” “asterik,” “supposubly,” “mischieveeous.” She goes to visit her original home for a week and her entire family speaks their normal street speak to her or with her. Then she comes back to D.C.

All of a sudden, at a dinner with the President, she starts telling a story about her family. She forgets where she is and begins speaking in her old dialect with her old street slang.

People judge people by their speech. And people don’t use slang in the political halls of our government because of it. Bringing out her old habitual speech could have serious credibility consequences since the public must trust her and some of that public equates her speech with her ability to lead. Her constituents might lose trust in her; and political peers might judge her unworthy of her post.

Fortunately, if someone has become a U.S. Senator, she will have a strong foundation in having learned how to speak and know what to speak in front of whom. But the old speech is there like all our old habits.

5) Forget to enjoy the idea of the new action that led to the new habit which is what helped us conjure the power to change.

This does not apply at the beginning of the habit change process. For as long as it takes, we are learning a new set of behaviors, and enjoyment is important but second to doing the behavior without intellectualization.

The ONLY thing that is relevant is doing the new action. Nothing else.

EnjoymentOnce we have accomplished doing the new action and have a routine going that includes the new behavior, we can rejoice in the fact that we have begun to change the habit and that we had the power to start. If we forget to be joyful which includes acknowledging ourselves for changing, we are missing out on the joy that can sustain the new behavior.

CONCLUSION

These 5 mistakes create powerful action steps from which to learn. They are simple ideas that, when executed, have much power, much wisdom and many success statistics.

Here are the steps:

ACTION STEPS – THE FIVE COMMANDMENTS OF HABIT CHANGE
5 Commandments Of Habit Change

1) Focus on one habit at a time!

2) Picture the first step in front of you now! When accomplished, picture the first step in front of you now!

3) Commit to change your habit for only the moment you have an urge or for an hour after it or for a day. Any longer is too overwhelming.

4) Continue doing the action that changed your habit, even if it doesn’t seem as if you need it.

5) Enjoy the idea that we have made the change (further on down the process).
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____________________________________________________________________
FEEDBACK

Please leave a comment and LIKE.

DIANE GOLD, AUTHOR

Diane Gold, Founder of Warriors of Weight, Turning Habits Into Health, is a mentor in tai chi, kung fu and meditation, a music, fitness and stress expert, dedicated mom, studying plant-based nutrition and habit change.

She has seen the same mistakes over and over when people change habits or make the attempt. She says,

“We can learn as much from our mistakes as from our successes. We may even learn more because we are acutely aware of our falling short of our goals and pay attention so that we can strive to reach them.

“We are fortunate to be able to learn from others’ shortcomings. All living things do. Because we have an emotional and ego-driven minds, it is not as easy for us to take the errors of others as gospel. We are often blinded by egos, unlike our animal friends. If they are blinded, it is usually by the need to survive.

“Let us turn these five mistakes of habit change into action steps. Each one has the potential to make the ultimate difference in the outcome of our goal for habit change.”