HOW SLOUCHING DESTROYS HEALTH (ISSUE 121)

By Diane Gold

Slouching destroys health. It may stop our breathing, but it can certainly compromise our power and our vitality. Not only do we compress the spine when we slouch, but we limit our respiration and cause our body to atrophy . We don’t usually think about these events, but they are obvious when we do.

Shoulders over the hips is the proper alignment for standing or sitting. This can also be done for people who spend their days in bed, with a small alignment trick below.

HEALTH AND SLOUCHING

One of the ways we stay healthy is to pump lots of fresh oxygen into our systems. The cleaner the air, the better off we are. The freer the airway is, the easier it is for it to flow.

Think about what happens when we have unwanted mucous in our body. We have difficulty breathing. This is because our airway is blocked.

Or think about when someone falls on top of us in gym class or martial arts training; we have a hard time breathing because our lungs get compressed and our oxygen level is restricted.

The same thing happens when we slouch: we restrict our own airway. It does take some effort to hold the torso up without slouching, but our bodies will thank us for the unbounded occasion to suck up oxygen with no obstructions.

MISSING THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK THAT BODY

Every time we are standing or sitting, or even lying down; we have the opportunity to work the abdominal muscles to hold the torso straight. Every time we don’t use this chance, it goes away.

It feels really good to have strong abs. They can do amazing things. Strong abs allow for a great life and great digestion, too.

We also have the chance to learn how to relax our chins, necks and shoulders with good posture. This, too, goes away if we don’t grab the moment.

PERPETUATING THE HABIT

When we keep slouching, we get used to it and it becomes normal. Unless we take a good long look, there are probably 5 times a day we slouch without noticing it: tidying up, cooking, working, driving, sitting on the toilet are some examples. We know that we develop a habit from a cue. The cue is the urge to relax or the urge to rest. What could possibly be wrong with letting the shoulders go while we are cooking? Isn’t this activity supposed to be mellow and fun?

Carving out relaxation time is crucially important. It doesn’t mean we have to slouch. After the cue, (wanting to relax) we do a behavior (letting the abs, shoulders and butt go out of alignment) that brings us the reward of ending the work it takes to stand, sit or keep the bones aligned. If repeated, this becomes the norm. Thus, we habitually slouch. Until we replace this behavior.

ACTION STEPS

1) USING THE LEGS

When we look at daily activities that require us to carry weight, we have to use our legs to take the pressure off our backs and our knees. Take vacuuming, sweeping, carrying out the recycling bin. These tasks require us to exert effort. When we bend the knees to engage the legs, we can do the pushing, pulling, carrying without compromising our spine. When an object is fairly bulky or awkward, it’s important to use some type of leverage (bent knees, a wagon, a dolly or a partner to avoid slouching the back during this enterprise.

2) USING THE ABS

Funny as it may sound, using the abdominal plate to hold the back erect is the easiest way to insure a healthy posture. This would mean this set of muscles has to be strong enough to endure the weight of the undertaking.

The labor can be as gentle as standing at the mirror to brush our teeth.

I bring this one up because several times this year, I have looked at my posture while grooming my teeth; it was in need of correction. Either my shoulders were slumped, I was leaning over the sink with an out of alignment back or I relaxed my abdominal muscles enough to slouch.

The action step is to notice yourself at tooth brushing time, and get the shoulders over the hips while you brush, floss and tongue brush.

3) TUCKING THE BUTT

So often, when people hear,

“Tuck the butt,”

they tuck the hips forward (which is correct), and they compromise the spine (obviously not correct). The purpose of this butt adjustment is to take the pressure off the joints and the back and place it on the bones which were built to do the heavy lifting (pun intended).

Standing in line is the perfect place to tuck your butt. Since we have decided to stand in this line, rarer and rarer with online banking, taxes and government paperwork;  we can use this instance to work on our slouching habit by changing our behavior. It takes just as much effort to stand straight as to slouch, even though we think the opposite; so we might as well maximize our own energy by aligning the body.

Large-chested women will find this particularly helpful as they have the challenge of not leaning too far back or forward to compensate for the weight of the chest.

The action step are these:

a)   While standing, feel like a soldier by rotating the belly button forward at the same time as tucking the butt so that the body is in a straight line. If you have strong abs, it’s OK if the torso is slightly forward of the hips.

b)   While sitting in your chair or on the couch (or sitting up in bed), tuck the butt so that the lower back presses against the lower back of the chair or couch. If this leaves space between the upper back and the chair or couch back, place a pillow there so that the center of the shoulders stay over the center of the hips.

If you are seated on a seat with no back, tuck the butt in the same way and use the abs to hold the shoulders over the hips with straight back.

c)   Especially for people who spend most of their time in bed, tuck the butt while lying down. Press the lower back into the bed. If possible, and for best leverage until you have rock solid abs, bend the knees  upward with feet flat on the bed.

CONCLUSION

 Slouching is insidious. It pops into our lives when we least expect and becomes normal unless we manage and fix it. When we are younger, it doesn’t seem like a big deal, except that the earlier on we make our move, the earlier we will develop the habit of an aligned body.

We need our breathing for health, so let’s help it out. We need to train our bones, muscles and tendons to keep us straight.

We feel better when our bodies are in line. There’s no time like the present to make slouching a thing of the past in our lives.
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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.

If she knows one thing better than anything else, it might be how to align the body for maximize health. She says,

“We have lots of time to live and make changes. Our lives will power up once we pay attention to body alignment. It’s as if someone turns a switch on the world; but we have done it. That’s how important posture is.

“It’s climactic. Replacing slouching helps our health. It is poignant. It’s like lighting up our lives because we let in more oxygen when we sit and stand well.

“Do it once. Then do it again. Keep on going.It’s good for all of us and makes us strong.”

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

By Diane Gold

The 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.

What 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.

3) 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.

For 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: http://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.

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.

Instead 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.

3) 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

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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.”

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?

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

So, 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.

Consider 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

Be 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.

Let’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.

Of 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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FEEDBACK

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Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

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.”

THE REAL SCOOP ON THE HEALTH CARE LAW! THE CASE OF THE SHRINKING WORK FORCE (ISSUE 117)

By Diane Gold

The Health Care Law Is Projected To Shrink The Work Force. This headline looks at full-time workers in an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. According to Jason Furman, Council Of Economic Advisors Chairman, the change in number of workers has to do more with people’s choosing part-time assignments rather than that employers are deleting jobs to avoid employee’s health insurance costs.

Let’s remember that the Affordable Care Act subsidizes those who work, for the most part. And, if people have enough money to pay for their insurance and their lives; they are contributing to our economy whether it’s with a full-time, part-time or self-employment situation. This is the exercise of beautiful freedom of choice.

THE HABIT

Here’s the habit, though. We, the sheep of America, have been groomed to go to school, strive to get a corporate or non-profit job, in part, for the health insurance benefits provided. Getting the right job that happens to include health care benefits is fabulous. It’s not the only way, and now, it is becoming a less chosen option.

Certainly, we are bound to contribute to humanity in a way that sustains us in some financial way and in order to leave a personal human legacy. We don’t have to get it by having a J-O-B in an environment, where group health care was the only reason we took the job. We can be CRE-8-TIVE and do what we love, which, for most people, is not what they do at their J-O-B. They can be small business owners, putting them in a category to be able to pay for themselves, but out of the headlined category: full-time W-2 worker, about whom the CBO is estimating.

THE ARTIST

There are those of us lucky enough to have trained in a field that we adore and actually work within that field. Or there are those whose job title is “artist,” and we have been fortunate or talented enough (both) so that people don’t think twice about calling us “artists,” which, of course, brings in income from the many who love us. (We are in the habit of calling people who paint, play music, write “people who fool around with art” if they don’t have popularity, and, therefore, aren’t financially sound, unfair as this can be.)

THE ENTREPRENEUR

There is so much creative energy that we all possess that is channeled by some into entrepreneurship. The people in this division make some of the breakthroughs that make our country great and make us happy Americans. We are thriving spiritually because of choices like entrepreneurship. Yes, there are just as many, if not more people who have that same spark of invention who don’t make a living at it and struggle. But they deserve the time to keep working at it.

THE FREEDOM

As I see the health care law headline about shrinking jobs, it makes me grateful to be American. Why? Because I believe America’s greatest benefit is its FREEDOM. We are free to be our wonderful selves, in all our creative glory, to choose what is right for us, based on our current situation. What may be seen as a bane in shrinking corporate workers could produce the next breakthrough in health care, technology, space, famine, peace. Isn’t that huge!

SPIRITUAL HEALTH

It’s fair to say that what keeps us happy and healthy is our own personal foundation. When we have a belief system or a set of ethics by which we live; this drives us to do act the way we do and make the decisions that we do.

As I see it, this category is the most important one we have. If we are personally “together,” as they used to say back in the day; we have what it takes to go on from there.

If we have our own value system, we know how to act as human beings, not just based on what feels good to us (hedonism), but based upon how we can benefit humanity and create a legacy of our own. I’m talking about the fact that building our virtue builds our legacy of choice. Spiritual health may not collect a billion dollars in money. Yet, if we have set up an ethic that helps others or creates harmony; we contribute spiritual health to the world.

When we work less, we have more time for this type of growth.

THE HEALTH CARE LAW

The Health Care Law aka The Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare is part of the legacy of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States. It allows for people previously uninsurable due to health issues to be insurable. It allows for people who could not afford health insurance to be subsidized enough to get it.

Another feature of this policy is that some citizens get to choose a lifestyle that does not include working full-time in a distasteful position just for the health care benefits. Although most of us cannot afford to work part-time or at our dream task; the law, formally called the Affordable Care Act, offers a new and unscheduled benefit: that of personal freedom.

We knew the ACA would give us more security, a way to reduce health care costs by having many more insured and not expending enormous medical costs by emergency room health care. No one talked about the freedom that might become available to some. According to the predictions, the economy will not suffer from these choices because we will have more contented citizens who maintain a higher level of health due to peace of mind from health coverage and spiritual wholeness and we will be using less expensive health care services.

CONCLUSION

I’m quite a fan of the ACA, since I have seen, first hand, its benefits. As with most headlines, though, it’s important to evaluate alleged proof and investigate media slant. In the case of the Health Care Law, the prediction of shrinking of employees is not a bad thing. It may mean people are choosing to work less and spiritualize more. It may be the trend of our current generations’ understanding of the importance of personal growth. It definitely will have to do with our lowering our health care costs, another plus.

This example of headline grandstanding is an opportunity to step back and see for ourselves. It’s also a good time to inventory our own choices that may or may not be possible for us at this time but that may give us some insight.

ACTION STEP INVENTORY

This might be eye opening and only takes a minute. Answer as if you were in the particular situation, even if you are not. And actually ask yourself the question. When I asked myself one at a time, they had more of an impact:

1) On scale of 1 to 10, 10 being high, if you were single, would you rather have a steady large organizational job or a steady part-time job and the time and freedom in which to be creative?

2) On scale of 1 to 10, 10 being high, if you were single, would you rather cut down on spending to afford a steady part-time job and the freedom to be creative or keep your steady corporate or non-profit job?

3) What is more important to you, money or spiritual health?

4) If you were responsible for a family, what would you want to show your kids, that it’s more important to provide luxury for them and have a corporate job that you don’t like or live with no frills and have a part-time job which afforded you time for creativity, spirituality and family?

5) Are you surprised at yourself?
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Finally, it seems as if freedom of choice is the reason for the shrinking employee headline. We’re all different. There’s no one way to be. And, through the ACA, the United States has just happily extended our freedom.

FEEDBACK

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

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

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 we all deserve health care. She says,

“I believe it is a right in the civilized world. Because of the Affordable Care Act, more people can be insured. A brilliant feature that is a secret benefit is the reduction in full-timers that is predicted. These are not the dedicated folks whose work is their passion. It is the people who have yet to find their passion. And their part-time status may lead them to it which will lead them to become more productive citizens to benefit us all.”

THE NUMBER ONE METHOD FOR HABIT CHANGE: THE SECRET IS OUT (ISSUE 116)

By Diane Gold

Before we reveal ”The Number One Method For Habit Change” for free, in this very article; let’s look at habits, in general, to understand how many we have and the potential simplicity of changing them.

PERSONAL HABITS vs. NON-PERSONAL HABITS

Our habits are either personal or non-personal. We all easily identify with habits and actions that relate to ourselves, since we are usually quite concerned with ourselves: whether we can or cannot control our eating, drinking, drugging, picking, blinking, speaking. These habits are physiological or mental and connect to our senses, rather than related to ways we act toward the outside world.

Non-personal habits define how we act toward our environment through repetitive actions passed down from families – political agendas, belief systems, what paper towel brand we use, what is acceptable to wear, eat, the way we were brought up to speak, the way we do or do not speak with people on the street or in our neighborhoods, listening to certain music because that’s what we’ve been exposed to, the amount we allow ourselves to dance in public, our understanding of social customs of our area, the way we treat others, the way we resolve conflict, whether we are first to help or wait for the crowd to do it first. These are all external to our own personal habits. They influence them and cross over into the personal, but they are outside them, for the most part.
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Both personal and non-personal habits make us who we are. Although we will focus on the personal, the number one method for habit change is the same for each.

APPEARANCE

We develop habits based on how certain actions make us feel. Whether we wear designer clothes, keep our hair immaculate or stay fit because we enjoy people’s staring at us; we act out behaviors regularly to achieve these good feelings, aka rewards. The cue, which is the original feeling that makes us do a behavior urges us to work so we have access to buy clothing, get our hair done, so we look how we like. This urge also pushes us to work out so that our bodies look good, which gives us the end result: the reward of having people acknowledge our beauty. Appearance

These are only examples of appearance habits we may have. There are others of us who specifically wear clothing to make us invisible, since we don’t like it when people stare. And there are others of us who do not consider what people think; they are busy with their own lives and work.

PHYSICAL CRAVINGS

Quite often, our habits become founded in the urges we feel. By acting out a certain behavior, we can receive a hormonal rush of happiness. Because we want to experience this “reward” again, we repeat the same behavior to get it. That’s how habits begin, with repetition.

The craving, urge, cue, whatever we call it, that drives us to behave a certain way can be a similar feeling no matter what reward our end product (the result of our action) achieves. Whether we eat a yummy food, take a tranquilizing drug, drink a drink that makes us tingle, play a card game that thrills us; we are seeking the end delicacy that our hormones produce.

TIME FOR HABIT CHANGE

As may be common knowledge, once we have a habit, it belongs to us. Like gene expression, it can be dormant or active. We don’t unlearn to ride a bike, and we don’t lose our blue-eyed chromosome that may express itself in our children, even though our eyes are brown. When we turn social drinking into excessive drinking, we own it. That doesn’t mean we have to express it in the future.

When we choose to change one of our habits, we replace the habit that was there with a new one. The old one is still there, but it is a “habit in the closet,” so to speak. As long as we are doing a new behavior and not opening the closet, the habit will stay put. For as long as we choose. Habit In The Closet

So the big trick to creating a new way of acting is SPEED, not the drug, but the swiftness with which we act after a cue. We have to be ready starting now for the very first cue that comes that has previously made us do the habit we want to change. From now on, we must replace this action within 15-30 seconds of getting that cue so that the mind doesn’t have a chance to intervene.

Once we have made the decision to do something different, that is, change a habit, we can remember,

“Immediate Action Required.”

That’s the simple answer to what could seem a monumental issue. Rather than struggling with “not” executing an act we have done over and over again, like giving in to our desires that lead us down a path we want to avoid, we take our attention and our bodies to a new place, a new action and, therefore, a new, but rewarding, outcome.

ACTION STEPS

1) As soon as the almighty urge shows up that sends us to get our reward, IMMEDIATELY DRINK WATER, TWO GLASSES AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. Bam! That’s it.

2) OK. That’s not exactly it for some people. We may need another action to lead us to the reward we want which is to look good, feel good and, ultimately, change our habit. We may need to VERBALIZE that we have had the craving out loud to another person or people.

Of course, if we have an appropriate friend, we can tell the friend. If not, we can tell a stranger. It’s surprising how many people want to listen to what we have to say, even if we just know them from shopping where they work. Naturally, we can reach out in social media, but this digital admission does not give us the same mirror reflection that telling a live person gives us.

We may be afraid, nervous, embarrassed to admit our urge. That’s fine. That has nothing to do with taking the action. We have plenty of time after we admit our urge to be afraid, nervous, embarrassed. As long as we take the action of saying it out loud first. This works best if it is done within 5 minutes of drinking the water.

If you’re near the beach, tell a lifeguard. If you’re in-city, tell a librarian. If you’re on the farm, tell a fellow farmer. The worst that can happen is that you will be judged by someone else. Most people are not qualified to make a judgment, so the judgment would be like someone not liking the color of your eyes. Those who are qualified to judge who make a negative judgment about someone’s decision to change a habit lack the compassion and humility that are found in a quality human being.

Think about it. What’s worse, not changing a habit whose time has come or the possibility of embarrassment? The obvious answer is not changing.

Granted, it does get tricky when we have children and they will be heckled in school. In that situation, it is time to trust the children and speak to them honestly.

3) Here’s a quick step in not being embarrassed. FOCUS on discussing your urge and on doing the new behaviors. When you are finished drinking water and verbalizing, you will have time left to be embarrassed. Or you may feel the power that comes with self-help.

CONCLUSION

What habits we develop depend on who we are, what we decide and our body and mental chemistry. Not every person raised in luxury with servants and dinner parties has the habit of overdrinking. Not every person raised in poverty who gambled in the park to feed her family lets gambling take over her life when other financial opportunities appear. The number one method for habit change works universally.

THE NUMBER ONE METHOD FOR HABIT CHANGE

When we are ready to change a habit, this is the process:

1) Make a contract with self to replace a behavior for a day or a week. The contract must include the action step to be taken immediately upon having the craving that starts the habit process in motion (such as when the urge to drink alcohol or eat a cookie comes; drink water, not alcohol or drink water, instead of eating a 3:00 pm cookie).

2) Take the contracted action step immediately every time the urge shows up, starting immediately. It’s only for a day or a week. You can un-contract yourself at any time after the first contract or renew it. Your choice.

3) Be consistent with the contracted behavior every single time you feel the craving or you start to think about it. It’s only for a day or a week, whichever you have chosen.

Once this process is completed, you have the choice to renew the contract or stop. The choice for changing a habit is yours.

HELPFUL HINTS

If this process does not work the first time, it’s okay to start again and again.

If someone says anything about your habit change question, it is not important. What is important is to do the action steps. That’s it.

It is not necessary to believe you can do it to succeed. What is important is to act. By doing so, your belief in self will arrive, while you are changing your habit. You will believe when you see what you have done.

FEEDBACK

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

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

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 we complicate. She says,

“Simplify, simplify, simplify. When we make things so complex, we miss what’s right in front of us. When we have one choice, we take it. When we have one road on which to walk, we walk it. The habit change process outlined as ‘The Number One Method For Habit Change’ proposed to do just that: offer one choice and one road on which to act out the choice.

“When we look at one thing at a time, we just might accomplish our goal. So let’s make a contract, act on it and repeat the actions for the contracted duration. That’s all we need, and that’s plenty.”

THE MANIPULATION OF EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE (ISSUE 115)

By Diane Gold

HABIT OF BELIEVING

It is always a good idea to trust, to believe the next person, give credence to what we read, being astute when credentialing who’s saying what and knowing what authors are attached to an agenda other than truth is present.

This means it’s important to keep in mind,

“Everybody wants a comfortable lifestyle, but what are you going to do for it? Where do you draw the line?”

said by Brad Murawski, a computer specialist from Troy, NY, familiar with scams and hacking, when polled by GfK and AP about trust.

I think most people want to live clean lives, where we would be proud to tell our children every decision we have ever made. But egoism and greed can lead us to deceive, omit and distort. And once we’re in the habit of doing our habit of ego and greed; we’re doing our habit of ego and greed.

How many times have we convinced ourselves that:

1) because of all the work we do, it’s okay to falsify the hours we invoice to a client,

2) because of all the money our employer makes, it’s fair to take home office supplies or make copies of our completely unrelated creative project using company copiers,

3) if we support someone’s project, that someone will support ours; so, it’s acceptable to support what we don’t believe in.

The last of these is the most common way that medical information gets corrupted, as far as I can see.

EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE DEFINED

Evidence-based medicine is the use of proof or high quality information and research in medicine, the science of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a disorder of function, often called disease. Factual testing is used to assess benefits and risks of specific treatments prescribed by learned people in the medical field. How many times does one academic support another’s study, body of work, thesis – even overlooking its controversy – for the primary purpose of getting support back, be it money or editorial byline?

We, especially in the Western World, but common everywhere, have developed the habit of believing that, if a clinical trial has taken place, if a certified doctor has uttered it, if a governmental agency assigned to evaluate and cure illness has said it, if our pharmaceutical companies claim it (since they are so very regulated by the FDA and other government agencies), if it’s published in a medical journal; the information publicized from this event must be ethical, honest, conscientious, and, most of all, clinically based. This is a strong habit that we have been repeating since we were young, having been taught to trust doctors, nurses and other medical personnel as well products from the wonder drug companies whose breakthrough can cure disease.

The term, evidence-based, is the current term for irrefutable proof, documentation based on science. What has happened out of greed and ego is that there is not one body of standard regulators whose job or future job does not depend upon their regulating. There is not one standard for study parameters; when articles are published, publishers take big money to print; when drugs are approved or in process, pharmaceutical companies working with academic institutions hire ghostwriters to write favorable reports so that the FDA will be encouraged to approve and doctors will be convinced to prescribe medicines based on what can only be called marketing.

How can evidence-based medicine not contain flaws when doctors and researchers are beholden to drug companies: for their continuing education, for the perks that drug companies give them – like hotel and air fare to conferences. Some doctors even work for the drug companies instructing other doctors in what drug to use. (Does your doctor take money? One of mine does, and he doesn’t believe what he teaches is influenced by his paycheck or end of year bonus based on number of prescriptions written).

DATA SOURCE

Medical professionals incorporate information of the latest experiments and trials along with their own research, college research and academic experience to make decisions.

In all circumstances, we are presuming the information in our tool kit has been derived through truthful, ethical and legitimate means. It comes to us as follows:

1)    In reputable medical journals;
2)    Through academic research reports;
3)    By lecture from professionals and speakers at conferences;
4)    Through summary of a research abstract;
5)    Through reading the entire published article if there is time for the whole read and if we pay to subscribe to the publication;
6)    Through promotional marketing materials publicizing a drug or technique;

7)    From  pharmaceutical representatives, whose companies often times are the sponsors and controllers of the clinical trials and the data published.
8)    Socially at lunch or golf with colleagues;
9)    Across the dinner table at a family of doctors or medical professionals.
10)  At monthly or quarterly lectures given by doctors who are paid by pharmaceutical manufacturers.
11) Through media attention to failed patients who are damaged or die as a result of information withheld from unpublished clinical trials.
12) In medical schools that get large funding, possibly enough money for entire laboratories, from various pharmaceutical companies.

We, the medical community, are given much opportunity for bias. We, the public including the student, are given much opportunity for bias. How do we know where the evidence is based?

OUR HABIT OF INFORMATION GATHERING

We, humans, and medical personnel in particular, pick up information when we hear it, because we are investigative. We have a habit of listening to information, even when we are not listening to it and, as astute individuals, will remember random information even if we are not able to remember where we heard about it. This phenomenon can lead the best intentioned professionals to validate or parrot information that has been disseminated for marketing purposes or that has no clinical protocol attached to it.

The same happens to plain, old non-medically trained individuals. We hear a commercial on TV, and, if it’s catchy enough, the brand being advertised sticks in our mind. Or a doctor has samples of various products that we see lying around the office, so we believe the product must be good. Or one person has her treatment paid for by a pharmaceutical company and it works; as happens often, that person shouts out her success more loudly than the 100 people who had adverse reactions to the same treatment.

Of course, it is possible to hear about a one-shot treatment occurrence that absolutely saved a patient’s life that was paid for by a company or whose marketing is the reason we heard about it. And, if we are this patient, we are thankful and ecstatic and swear by this one single, random, non-duplicable effort because it saved us and we live. This is a dangerous way to get information, though.

But, in general, we use the data sources listed above and our own good judgment thrown in. If we are not employees of the research sponsor, which can be the pharmaceutical company or the university whose board members are on both boards or connected to someone with a financial interest; we will rarely have access to unpublished research information, since all of it belongs to the originating sponsor as part of the sponsorship arrangement. We will also not know how accurate the investigative reporting has been.

WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE OUR ACCURACY AND UNDERSTANDING?

We come back to trust, which, as we’ve said, is good. As long as we add in all the factors that can bias evidence, we can evaluate whether the results of the evidence-based medicine we so cherish have any basis in profit or furthering political careers or paving the way for employment at a pharmaceutical company.

Should we conclude that the research in front of us was conducted for the purpose of furthering humanity, we can hope for the best and still judge for ourselves. Most studies start out with good intentions, and the researchers involved usually demand pure science. But research costs money, and sponsorship usually comes with promises of non-disclosure and the sponsor’s ability to change study parameters that will manipulate the data.

CONCLUSION

There is lots of medical research both in academia and in companies in the pharmaceutical industry, from medical student projects, from already working doctors and medical professionals that is outstanding, amazing, monumental, life changing, life saving, cooperatively integrated with every other discipline that exists, evidence-based for real with no prejudice based on agenda that is the pure truth. Our arms go out to you in thanks, praise and commendation. Keep up the great work. We are counting on you.

But there are those of us who, because we wanted a better life, to send our kids to a better college or just because we wanted the money for the research that we love to do, crossed that line.

ACTION STEPS

If the line concerns the safety of human lives, such as having knowledge of unpublished trials that prove a negative reaction in humans;

1)   Please consider crossing the line back over to the right side again. If we are a company or an academic community, do we not want to show our children how to be good citizens? If we are individuals, do we not want to be the examples our children will follow?

The manipulation of evidence-based medicine exists. But the truth seekers are also here.

2)   Let us continue to strive for knowing the difference, difficult as it is, and to encourage the line-crossers to cross back over.

We have all (well, most of us, anyway) crossed some line, whether it’s been to embellish on a resume, let a research student do our research to which we put our name, or whether we took a job with an unethical company.

We owe it to each other to keep medicine clean so that the principles of evidence-based medicine can prevail.

3)   Let’s be aware of factors that can taint, and let’s be good examples of truth.

FEEDBACK

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

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

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 in people’s ability to be truthful and ethical. She also knows that habits can make us who we are not. She says,

“Be trusting, but be diligent. Know people for the emotions they possess.

“We all have feelings that can trap us or not, depending upon how we control our habit mechanism and our desires. There is never really a steadfast good reason to be dishonest. When our children are starving, we may choose to steal bread. Other than this desperation, we are responsible for truth.

“We know people who have chosen medicine started out to help their flock. Let us point them in that direction again and be diligent in seeking out true evidence-based medicine.”

HEALTHY EATING: WHY DOES THE U.S. FALL BEHIND? (ISSUE 114)

By Diane Gold

We would think that healthy eating in the United States is easy and that we are at the top of the charts when compared to other countries.

So why do we have more dietary sickness (diabetes and obesity) than 120 out of 125 countries (see Oxfam’s Good Enough To Eat  chart, mentioned in the New York Times article by Mark Bittman on January 21, whose information is collected from organizations like the World Health Organization).

According to this report which looks at best and worst countries’ food statistics, the United States has the most affordable food, 4th best in quality, 41st best in available water (big surprise), along with the above statistic on health from food and is 21st in having enough food.

I remember having a discussion with one of my virtual assistants in India and his complete shock and disbelief when I said that there are people in the US who are hungry. Obviously, some people have triple what they need, and others do not.

Let’s focus back on the healthy eating topic. Do we eat more healthfully than poorer countries? The answer, tragically, is not as a country. Here’s why.

PESTICIDES AND GMOs

 Farmers use some method of offsetting bugs and weeds on their crop. Many use toxic pesticides which change the basic structure of the fruit or vegetable being grown or add some new chemical structure to the plant by pesticide exposure. This makes the food less healthy.
(See http://warriorsofweight.com/pesticides-which-fruits-veggies-have-least.)

Another series of events may contribute to low health statistics. Farmers are dependent upon seed  supply companies of which there are many. If they are convinced through extravagant marketing that genetic modification reduces the need for expensive pesticides, they may opt for seeds that have been genetically changed. (Noteworthy is that the 4 large companies, together, own a whopping 47% of the GMO (genetically modified organism) seed businesses.) There is no study that definitely points to worse health with GMOs, but we do know that some of the resulting modified seeds may be carcinogenic.

The marketing for GMOs is that the GE seeds were structured to enable certain weed killers to be used no harm to the seed and its resulting plant. The GMO seed is also supposed to be stronger so that it requires less pesticide. That’s the hype to get farmers to pay more for seeds because they are GMO.

Unfortunately, in July, 2012, Food and Water Watch came out with a study based on USDA and USEPA statistics that the use of genetically modified seeds does not reduce pesticide use. Also, there may be evidence that GMOs are toxic.

So, why buy GMO seeds, when farmers will not save money on pesticides and when these seed companies require farmers to contract to throw away the seeds after one planting? As humans, we always look to social proof and listen to marketing. If large companies say it’s so, it must be so, right? Never mind the science if we haven’t been exposed to it as often.

So, we consume pesticides galore which cause all sorts of health issues.

SNACKS AND PACKAGED FOODS

More packaged food than not is in our supermarkets. We use corn and soy, most of it genetically engineered (GE), and sugar, half of it GE, to create fast food with lovely colors. Instead of selling snacks that are fresh food, we buy boxes or bags with ingredients we can’t pronounce. Older generations did it, meaning our parents or grandparents; so why shouldn’t we?

We are more nutritionally educated than in the past, so that’s a good reason not to carry on the habit. The goal of the food industry is for us to buy. Many of us believe that if the food giants with lots of experience produce something, it must be healthy for us to eat.

In the past, we trusted the industry with our nutrition. After all, each company has a research and development team, scientists, doctors and inventors.

Now, we know that the researchers and developers in food are there to cause us to buy the food. Health is of no concern as long as the food passes some very inferior safety testing probably created by the regulators with the help of the industry itself.
Beware that packages that say vegan or organic are still processed food.

GREED

We are pleasure seekers and taste mongers with our taste buds being bombarded with new combos of flavor. We will do anything for the next delight, whether it be food, body sensation, exercise, drink, color, gadget. What this means with food is that, even though we know that healthy food is crucial, we choose to eat highly fatty, salty, oily foods that taste unbelievably good. And we have developed the habit of eating portions that are much too large, just because we have developed the habit by being served too much in a restaurant or at home.

These habits are waiting to be replaced with healthy eating.

OVERUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS

Our wealth and our propensity for pharmaceutical cures has led us to over-ingest antibiotics. We know there are a good many viruses that cause us to be sick, yet, since the development of penicillin, we have been antibioticking (verb creation going on, here) ourselves unnecessarily.

Antibiotics do not work against viruses. They also strip the body of the microbiomes needed on an hourly basis in the human digestive tract. A study at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo., published in Pediatrics in 2012, swabbed the nasal passages of young children with unexplained fever and, for control, children without fever. Those with fever had 5 X the viral load of those without. The study’s objective was to to determine whether a quick nasal swab could improve the mistaken prescribing of antibiotics for viral sickness, which always harms microbial balance. The jury is still out, in my opinion, for 2 reasons: the antibiotic industry is massively profitable and there are some very nasty bacteria that can kill the patient if antibiotics are not given in time.

According to a Mayo Clinic article, antibiotics don’t work on bronchitis, colds, flu, most coughs, most ear infections, most sore throats, stomach flu. According the CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance Threats In The United States 2013,

“… up to 50% of all the antibiotics prescribed for people are not needed or are not optimally effective as prescribed.”

2 articles in the Journal Of The American Medical Association headed by Gonzalez, R. in 1997 and Nyquist, AC in 1998 came up with the statistic that colds that 23 million prescription annually were written for bronchitis, colds and upper-respiratory infection.

At that time, it was 1 in 5 antibiotic prescriptions being wrongly prescribed.

The use of antibiotics causes needed healthy bacteria to disappear, which enables antibiotic resistance and causes immune system vulnerability taking away some of our good health.

LACK OF NUTRITION EDUCATION

How long is the nutrition course in our schools? What? There isn’t one, or there was that one day when Chelsie’s mom, the chef, came in? We learn how to read, how to write, how to add and subtract numbers so that we can go to the bank and shop, but is there an ongoing course to teach us how to sustain our health through food or teach us what to buy based on budget?

Although much has changed since I went to school, nutrition is currently a sporadic course in most schools. A great schedule would be to offer it twice a week from pre-school through high school, along with and not instead of physical education. Why did it take America’s failing health to remind us to include this hugely important subject?

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

We make many choices about what we eat based upon how much we have to spend. Of course, this is a huge factor that requires further discussion. It is so important that it is best discussed in school as well as in the home.

WHAT CAN YOU DO AKA WHAT ACTION STEPS CAN YOU TAKE?

1)   You can suggest to the editor of your local newspaper to have a natural foods home from school snack contest, vegan and non-vegan, organic and non-organic, on which the entire community’s children can vote. It will stimulate creativity, allow others to share recipes, build awareness and promote health in snacking. Plus, it will educate our kids to the possibilities available with whole foods.

You can ask your local health food store and supermarket to donate ingredients.

2)   When you go to see your doctor or health professional, have a fully transparent discussion about the nature of any treatment prescribed for you. This includes asking which research the professional thinks will help you get the facts and understand the risks. Although the expression,

“You are under my care,”

is very common, we must take responsibility for staying aware and making choices with our health advisor.

Doctors like talking to informed patients and, if you are respectful of the provider’s expertise, many will have very informative discussions with you and will share more with you the more you know.

3)   Go to your local elementary school and ask what the sequence of nutrition education is for each grade in the school. Do the same at the middle and high schools. Yes, even if you do not have a child in school or in that grade.

If there’s no set curriculum, suggest starting one. Here are some references:

vrg.org/nutshell/nutshell.htm#teaching

cde.ca.gov/search/searchresults.asp?cx=001779225245372747843:gpfwm5rhxiw&output=xml_no_dtd&filter=1&num=20&start=0&q=nutrition%20educationfrom

fnic.nal.usda.gov/professional-and-career-resources/nutrition-education/curricula-and-lesson-plans

Keep in mind that if food industry manufacturer has helped to create a curriculum, the lesson plan will be biased in the direction of the food manufacturer’s philosophy (such as, the meat and dairy industry would not advocate a vegan diet). Also, many curricula leave out the vegan diet. Put it in as a remarkably healthy option.

CONCLUSION

Healthy eating is on us as individuals. It’s on us to lead the education system to teach nutrition and plant-based nutrition in the classroom.

In general, we need to choose curricula that are not connected with any particular industry or company, since most offer free curricula to promote their cause.

We have the strongest country in the world. Let’s understand our nutritional downfalls, and let’s get around to healthy eating.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

How can we manufacture food? Food grows.

FEEDBACK

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

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

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 lots of bad education and believable marketing about food (and drugs) that have no place in realism. Because people are naive and don’t demand more, they get duped. She says,

“We are right to be trusting and loving. This is number one. However, we are also right to discern love and concern from profit motive and corporate advancement. Just as familes love each other more than anything, corporations love more sales than anything. It is crucial for us to know the sources of all the ingredients we ingest, which we don’t, which means we can’t make informed decisions about whether we want to eat the food. But we eat it anyway. (Same with pharmaceuticals.)

“It is fair to think that the regulations on food (and drugs) have been influenced by the food (and pharmaceutical) industries. It is the industry’s job to make as many sales as possible, even if it persuading us with nebulous or false  or omitted information. It is fair that we have to do our own research on healthy eating. It is also fair for us to speak out to change safety standards and require labels to include sourcing of each ingredient, waxing of every piece of produce and source of each fertilizer that goes into the ground that grows our produce.

“We are a long way off from transparency in any of these areas. So, let’s look at the research on regulations and regulators. And let’s be diligent when we believe what we hear. These kinds of actions will help us in the United States and abroad with raising the bar on healthy eating.”

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.”

Of 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

a)   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)

Use 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.

We 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.

b)   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

Join 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.

FEEDBACK

We value your feedback very much.

Please leave  a comment.

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

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.”

HABITS IN MEDICAL CARE – PART 3: READY FOR CHANGE? (ISSUE 112)

By Diane Gold

This article looks at 7 habits well ingrained in our standard behavior in those of us who have put our faith in the medical care system without realizing the pitfalls and the dangers and before examining the outcome. Its purpose is to highlight our automatic acceptance of these behaviors and to offer alternative options to anyone ready for change.

1)   Depending upon a primary care physician and giving up our personal responsibility for our care.

In the previous article in this series (June 24, 2013), I mentioned I was still looking for a primary care provider. I have found her. It is I, an unlicensed, non-medical person who knows a lot about nutrition and mind, body, spirit fitness. So far, I care the more about my own care than anyone I have found; I don’t treat myself like just another chart; I know the details of my case without having to look at a chart which is brief, at best; I have done research on nutrition and fitness and body processes and interactions that no medical personnel I know has done.

I work on always being open, as I believe it is a great way to live. But I am responsible for myself and count on specialists for specific parts of my body. Shouldn’t we all be responsible?

2)   Having to pay for a 2nd doctor’s visit to get the results of the diagnostic tests whose prescription we paid to get at the 1st doctor’s visit.
When we have a question, we must make an appointment to ask the question: unless we have some type of concierge version of a relationship with the medical pro. In days to come, it is likely that we can use telehealth (virtual medicine) to get our question answered. Of course, we will pay for the medical pro’s time in school, cost of school, cost of overhead including office staff, whether face-to-face staff or virtual, and medical expertise.

 Although I am looking forward to the day when all medical professionals offer  electronic consults, the telehealth-telemedicine industry is already having us form a new habit, should we choose to accept what it is pushing. Their business model saves provider overhead, saves the government emergency visit costs for patients who get government subsidies, but the patient pays the same as before. As are many infrastructures, this one is abusive.

The televisit might be no more than 50% of an actual face-to-face visit if we were taking into account there are no office to clean, no employee needed to meet and greet, no sterilization of instruments and no need to prepare an office for the appointment. Further, more of us would be happy not to have an in-person visit if our virtual encounter cost less. It doesn’t. Why would it not, except that the industry has made a pact not to train us patients to pay a non-reduced cost?

3)   Taking doctor recommended drugs from doctors who are paid by the pharmaceutical companies to prescribe.

Does your doctor work for a pharmaceutical company? Did you know that some are commissioned to recruit patients for a new drug, getting paid per each head brought to the study? They are also trained to educate other doctors about the possible benefits of the drug so that other doctors will recruit patients to take the drug. Don’t know for sure, but I suspect that the educating doctor gets a cut of the stipend that every other doctor gets for bringing patients to the study. If this is the structure, it is multi-level marketing which I firmly believe in. But, in medicine, might there be agendas pushing prescribing techniques?

Just like the pharmaceutical rep I met the other day, the doctor paid by big pharma has been trained by the pharmaceutical company on the merits of the drug. Had s/he seen all the trials, even data of patients who didn’t finish or on patients who dropped out because of side effects? Makes us wonder.

4)   Accepting that doctors don’t get to see the full data on drugs they prescribe.

Doctors and health professionals only get to see a summary of abstracts or the full abstract if they pay for a medical journal subscription that houses the abstract. The abstract is some editor’s summation of facts which may not reflect study results. How weird that drug study results are not open to patients. We’re the ones who have to decide to take them or not. These data are also not open to doctors. Should we just say,

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am,”

when told to take a drug when we don’t even know whether evidence collected shows its merit or not?

5)   Accepting that the drug administrator in our country permits pharmaceutical companies to hide drug trials from doctors and patients.

6)   Not being told, in advance, the cost of what we are purchasing at the doctor’s office.

7a) Not being given full explanation before a procedure is done at a doctor’s office so that we can decide whether we agree to have a procedure done.

7b)  Not standing up for ourselves and asking for full explanations at a doctor’s office before we have a procedure done.

CONCLUSION

We all have habits in medical care. Whether we are aware of them or not is another story.

The way to better ourselves is to notice how we treat ourselves and notice how people we pay in the health care system treat us. We deserve good treatment. This may mean changing our habit.

WHAT YOU CAN DO, THE ACTION STEPS

These action steps require that we be our own advocates. It’s not as hard as we may think. And, many providers will be willing to talk and change, should be we bring our concerns to their attention.

1)   Study how the body can be made to be healthy, and do this for the rest of your life.

2)   When you call the provider’s office to get the results of your test, have the provider fax or email you your results. Then you can decide whether a follow-up appointment is necessary.
Ask your medical provider if  you can confer by email and what it would cost.

3)   Ask your provider if s/he is in any way affiliated with the pharmaceutical company of any drug prescribed.

4)   Ask your provider how much data she has read on any drug she suggests. Ask that she get that data to you for your review. This does not mean the insert inside the drug box or the summary of any abstract that is available online.

5)   Call the drug administrator in your country, and talk about how you want drug trials to be public, not proprietary.

6)  Call you provider a day before an appointment. Request of the front desk that they tell you up front what your responsibility will be for the visit. This may mean they have to call your insurance company to find out what your responsibility for payment will be. I they say you have to wait, you can tell them you would need to know this information before you go to the appointment.

If you have no insurance, ask the provider’s office person for what you will be responsible if you have a routine visit, an x-ray, anything else commonly done in your type of provider’s office. Of course, the office person will say s/he won’t know until afterwards. At this point, mention that you are asking for the cost for an office visit and 3 x-rays. If you don’t have the x-rays, you can deduct that amount. Also, if you have no insurance, request of the office personnel that they request of the provider to be permitted to pay the allowed amount paid by people on an in-network insurance plan. Sometimes, they will have mercy. But, if you don’t ask, you’ll never know.

7)   Tell your provider that you are always interested in a full explanation of anything that s/he wants to do so that you will feel more comfortable with the process. Be clear the provider knows you have full confidence in what she is doing but wish to understand the process before it happens. That way, no ego gets bruised, and you can still decline the procedure once you understand what it is.
_

AWARENESS

Be aware of how many habits in medical care we have. We can change them today to support our lives.     Awareness

FEEDBACK

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

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

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 we are responsible for our health and its treatment. She says,

“When we allow a medical provider to work with us, we are giving opportunity. True, we are also fortunate to have the benefit of such a person, especially if we find a caring and competent provider.

“But part of our responsibility, as I see it, is to ask questions about every step of our medical care and to inform all providers how we want to be treated. Otherwise medical professionals will not know that we want discussion and disclosure and may not realize we wish to approve or disapprove what is being suggested.

“The more we speak out, the more medical professionals will feel comfortable talking to us instead of at us. If we stay silent, care providers sometimes think we don’t want to participate in our own medical life. So, make it known that we want to be very much involved in all procedures.

“If we’ve never asked questions, habit change is in front of us. If we have been expressive about our involvement in our own medical care, it’s always great to reinforce a good habit.”

HOW PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD (ISSUE 111)

By Diane Gold

When one person betters herself, the world is better by one person. When many better themselves, this is multiplied. Therefore, personal development changes the world, one person at a time.

But, we may say, personal development is evolution of the individual, and changing the world requires understanding government, corporate and independent machines and acting upon given situations. So how can working inward affect working outward?

The main thing to remember is that we are not stagnant beings; we grow in one direction or the other, so when we cultivate ourselves on a regular basis and facilitate our own flourishing, we are, in essence, changing and improving the world.

PRELUDE TO BEGINNING OR NOT?

Before we can work on ourselves, do we have to stop any downward spiraling that exists from any part of our lives or from any self-limiting beliefs? ABSOLUTELY NOT, NOT NECESSARY, BARRIER THINKING, NO.

There is no need to work toward beginning. We just begin. Yes, in order to be able to pass a standardized test, we may have to take some courses to qualify. But, this is not a prelude; beginning constitutes beginning from wherever we are, so that we can go from there to achievement.

Let’s bold this rule to live by and make it an action step.

ACTION STEP

BEGIN FROM WHEREVER WE ARE. It makes no sense in comparing ourselves to someone else, because we are not someone else. We will always be ourselves, so let’s begin from where we stand. We can learn characteristics and skills of others, but we will always be ourselves and available to become higher humans.

TYPES OF PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Let’s look at some of the different ways people develop themselves.

Some of us read books. Many of us believe we are helping ourselves by the mere fact that we have purchased and read a book from the self-help section of the book store (the placebo effect). That’s a good thing, though. It promotes balanced people which creates a more stable world.

Others of us mingle with great humans and take on a little of each of them through every connection.

Others of us go to support groups or prayer groups, where there is a leader. The leader discusses, speaks; hopefully we get a chance to speak. Definitely we get the chance to learn to learn.

There is also the newer group model for creating a solution, where there is no leader for an agenda-driven gathering, but participant’s input creates the solution.

Another type of personal development fortifies us by our absorption of the very method we are studying. Tai chi, the other martial arts, free dance, meditation, yoga are disciplines in this mind-body arts category. Music, visual art, poetry are in the creative arts category. By studying any of these methods, we consume a system of learning. This system develops who we are. This development fortifies the world.

MY RECENT PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE AT  5-RHYTHMS’ DANCE SESSION

I had the pleasure of attending a 5-Rhythms’ dance session on Friday, January 3, led by Amber Ryan, in Miami. The purpose of the session was to spread goodness, to cleanse the body, mind and spirit and resonate with learning about ourselves. The ultimate goal was use the dance method (which is a method of doing your own steps with a little bit of guidance) to shake off all our own personal garbage so that we could let our own inherent love shine through.

What is important to me about this session is that we are not told what to do or what step to dance. This freedom allows me to learn and grow. The instructor guides us on what part of our body on which to focus. Most of the time, though, we are dancing freely, with no instruction, just moving to the music, between 100 and 126 BPM (beats per minute, which you may remember from some of my other articles or from your own knowledge base – for reference, the heart beats at about 60 or 70 BPM). It is the least egocentric dance discipline I have seen. That’s because people are busy getting to know themselves, rather than comparing their dance moves to others. There is a guide, but there are no leaders.

I was very involved in the dance. But the word love came up several times. One of the other partners in the event kept expressing how she felt “so much love;” whether this was inside herself or from the group, I will not speculate. Although I could speculate because I felt some kind of love-y feeling inside, radiating out to the group and back to me. Nothing ethereal, I was heated from dancing. I was happy from releasing the tension in my body through dancing. I was dancing with others, one of my favorite activities. And I was socializing with people who had nothing, at that moment, to prove.

EUREKA

I realized that developing this positive inner feeling was personal development at its finest. If everyone were developing this joyous feeling within, we would be employing the changing the world principle, making positive humans, one individual at a time. By multiplying one times the number of people working on themselves, the world became kinder, more confident, more respectful, more social in a gentle way, with better human beings.

TAI CHI ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I know this EUREKA PRINCIPLE to be true from tai chi, also. Because of the biological effects of doing it and the concentration required to execute it; we feel balanced, moral, cleansed, helpful to others from the inside out as well as the outside in. And, here, I can clarify that the dancing I mentioned earlier uses the same principles to move the arms, the body, the legs, the head and to personally develop the self.

CONCLUSION: HOW PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

We know that personal development is individualistic, but individuals make up the world. We know that if we develop ourselves through certain disciplines, we will become spiritually rich humans and contribute good acts in the world.

When we as people become better rounded, we contribute good deeds. Lots of individual good deeds changes the world, as the more personal development we do, the more our generosity prevails and the more, we contribute 1 individual at a time.

When we as people become better rounded, we contribute good deeds. Lots of individual good deeds changes the world, as the more personal development we do, the more our generosity prevails and the more, we contribute 1 individual at a time.

ACTION STEPS

Here are several steps that might be of interest to further our personal development.

1)   Choose a discipline to do on a daily basis. (It works best if you are receiving non commercial gain from said discipline. Example: this is not about painting a picture in order to sell it.)

2)   Decide on an amount of time to which you commit that is comfortable to you: 10 seconds a day or 15 minutes a day. Once you pick a number, it cannot decrease. Also, take note: once you increase your time on any one day, your increase now becomes your new daily duration of time for the discipline.

3)   Do the discipline every day before the end of your day (works best in morning, if this works for your schedule).

4)   After 30 days, decide whether you are a better human being because of this discipline.

5)  No matter what the answer, do it another 15 days. Remember this can be 10 seconds a day or 15 minutes.

6)   At the end of the 45th day, decide whether it is making you peaceful, happy, relaxed, creative, motivated, balanced. If yes, keep going. If not, go to 1).

RESEARCH NOTE

According to neuroeconomist, P.J. Zak’s research, we do good acts to maintain our position in the community because we are social creatures and wish to stay in favor in our society. When we have our food and shelter, it’s easy and we produce an adequate amount of hormone oxytocin, which gives us our generosity. When we have no food, we are out of balance, will not produce enough oxytocin  and will do anything to survive, thus lose our generosity. This research also mentions the 5% of people who are in great socioeconomic situations but do anti-generous things like take billions of dollars in Ponzi schemes that hurt others. And another 5% of people who renounce their good socioeconomic status to be generous and Mother Theresa-like to others.

____________________________________________________________________
FEEDBACK

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

Please LIKE us on the website and at WarriorsOfWeight on Facebook. Thanks.

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 that, in order to change the world, we must first change from the inside, each of us, individually. She says,

“Each of us needs personal development, be it tai chi, music or weekly self-help meetings. In order for us to accommodate our own changes and grow ourselves, this is best done on a daily basis.

“If we all do it, we will all become better people. If we are better people, we are changing the world for the better.”