Spunky Mama

Green Guide Families

Click to read a preview of the "Green Guide Families". This book promises to clarify a lot of questions an aware parent might have.

Good health is no accident

via www.naturalnews.com

"Disease is what happens when people believe they have no role in their own health outcome. So they eat for entertainment rather than for nourishment, and they live for product-induced external stimulation rather than internal fulfillment."

My belief and understanding is that we are born with good and bad genes.

It is our choice to decide if we want to activate the good genes, or the bad genes.

The choices we make in regards to lifestyle (our nutrition, levels of activity, our habitual thought patterns, stress levels, friends, support, outlook on life etc) determine which genes get a chance to dominate.

The article from Natural News is not a mainstream article, and will no doubt annoy a few people. It is so much easier to pretend that you've never heard and understood this concept of creating your own health or disease. But who says life is about the short cuts?

Click through to Natural News and read on!

 

The world you create is your masterpiece!

What is the message that YOU deliver to YOURSELF?? Do you deliver the TRUTH - or do you deliver lies? Are you making assumptions? Are you taking things too personal? Are you impeccable with your words - always using them in a positive way? Is your mind set on always doing your BEST? 

I wish I could say YES - that's me. I ALWAYS live by that. But... nope. 

However - I am so CURIOUS to find out what life would be like if I was able to live by the FOUR AGREEMENTS - and the fifth - more and more often. If I day by day, make small adjustments in how I think, speak and react - what changes will occur in my life?

Like don Miguel Ruiz is saying in the YOUTUBE below, "The world you create is your masterpiece". 

I believe that. I have witnessed myself create Heaven on Earth - and I have created nightmares too. 

Reading the Fifth Agreement is inspiring me to shift back into full gear - and live and breathe all of the five agreements.

Why choose to go veggie once a week?

I have mentioned the China Study so many times here on the blog. Yet I don't know of very many people who actually go out and pick up the book to read it for themselves though ;) Including my husband. So while preparing for a road trip last Thanksgiving weekend (October here in Canada) I downloaded the audio from iTunes and had the family captured in the car, listening to 8 hours worth of China Study.

My husband and 6 year old daughter, have chosen to go completely veggie since then, two of the other kids make sure they only eat "good" meat, and 5 out of 7 days they are vegetarians too. (my youngest has never been interested in eating meat, I've offered, but he is very content without).

Maybe you don't have 8 hours to listen to the audio book, but would you have 45 minutes to get the gist of what T. Colin Campbell's research is all about? Check out the youtube below!

This isn't about how "bad" it is to be a carnivore, or that I am convinced that we can't handle eating meat from time to time - this IS about the benefits we'd enjoy, if we would eat MORE greens, veggies and legumes.

This IS about being against excessive cruelty to animals (the slaughter house nightmares, the horrendous quality of life most of our livestock experience).

This IS about cutting down on carbon emissions from beef and meat production. Some studies claim that 50% of greenhouse gases can be blamed on meat.

Join the Meatless Monday movement and enjoy healthy, tasty, yet cheap and environmentally friendly food that also sends a message to meat producers, once a week.

9 habits for a longer life - Blue Zones

Wow - I just watched an interview with the Blue Zones author Dan Buettner. He is sharing his insight into health and longevity. I am really looking forward to reading the book, but in the meantime I dug out some info from Dan Buettner's web site Blue Zones.

Dan has identified 9 habits that can increase your life expectancy:

1. Move (find ways to move mindlessly, make moving unavoidable)

2. Plan de Vida (know your purpose in life)

3. Down Shift (work less, slow down, rest, take vacation)

4. 80% Rule (stop eating when you're 80% full)

5. Plant-Power (more veggies, less protein and processed foods)

6. Red Wine (consistency and moderation)

7. Belong (create a healthy social network)

8. Beliefs (spiritual or religious participation)

9. Your Tribe (make family a priority)

It all rings true to me, and echoes Colin Campbell's China Study, John Robbins' Healthy at 100 and many, many other books that shed light on longevity lifestyle habits.

Examples of blue zones are are Sardinia, Okinawa, Costa Rica (the Nicoya Peninsula), Loma Linda and Ikaria (a Greek island) The residents exercise regularly, eat more vegetables and less meat, they engage in social networking, and they wake up every day to a sence of purpose & meaning in life.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Stress could cause cancer if you let it

"Scientists have discovered that everyday emotional stress is a trigger for the growth of tumours." via www.telegraph.co.uk: 

While we've all heard it before - it has now been proven. Stress is killing us in many ways. We can be OH SO GOOD about the food we eat and how often we work out, but how well do most of us handle stress? The everyday, mundane type of stress? The stress that we think is a part of life?

Ultimately we create the stress ourselves. We think the thoughts that cause us to feel stress. The situation that we are in triggers a reaction. While the situation might not be within our absolute control, we DO have control over our reaction. Our response to the unchanged event can cause us to feel stress - or not. Our choice.

Right now Oprah and Debbie Ford are offering the perfect solution to the stress dilemma. It's called The 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse. 

I HIGHLY recommend that you check it out for yourself. It's free. It's delightful. It could change your life. 

http://store.debbieford.com/pages.php?pID=32#freecourse 

- or here to get going on the next 21 days of your stress free life 

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Get-Started-Take-Debbie-Fords-21-Day-Consciousness-Cleanse

Always do your best!

As I'm beginning to think about what to pack for our month long trip to Sweden, I am more obsessed with books and supplements than clothing and gifts. My mind started wandering to books that I've read in the past, and that made a difference in my life.

I think this one by don Miguel Ruiz  - The Four Agreements , is on the top 5 list. I was really able to take his teachings to heart, and I think I'm a more balanced and happy person thanks to it. I haven't engaged in one single road rage since I first read the book several years ago ;)

These are the 4 agreements as listed on the website www.miguelruiz.com (well worth a visit):

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

Buy nothing Day!

I forgot... it's buy nothing day.. and I didn't plan for it. $500 into the day and it's only 1 PM. Didn't even buy anything EXCITING.. just groceries (and yerba maté in bulk) plus a couple of gifts.

I completely support the idea though. We consume far too much.

We've begun to make smarter choices and think about future generations when we shop. It is more expensive to shop sustainably - but you buy less "stuff", and generally end up with more nutritious food than shopping on auto pilot would. (Environmental Working Group is a good place to start your consumer education)

The mentality to "want less" and be a conscious consumer is very liberating (not to mention environmentally friendly). You're all of a sudden no longer participating in the rat race. The race to "have the most".

There is a brilliant line in the book "The four hour work week" by Timothy Ferris - (I passed the book along to a friend, and I can't remember exactely what he said - but you'll get the gist) Tim is referring to the "fat bald man in the red BMW" to motivate himself to quit the 9-5 existence and live the life of his dreams. He didn't want to work just to accumulate things, that he would have no time to enjoy, and turn into the man in the beamer - with stuff, but a dismal life.

How many hours less could you spend away from what you TRULY WANT to experience - if you didn't choose to turn to retail therapy and accumulation of status symbols in order to feel happy in life? Would consuming less translate into more quality time with family and friends - or perhaps the free up some time for adventures, like the ones Tim mentions in his book?

I am game to try.

The kind diet

Yes, I know.. I AM slightly obsessed with finding the ultimate diet. The diet that will produce the BEST health EVER!

And the deeper into the trenches of healthy food obsession that I get - the more I come to understand that it is the food that we feed our bodies, that fuel our thoughts and thereby our actions. Feed yourself KIND foods - and your life will feel gentler and kinder in every aspect.

And the deeper into exploring the power of our food to alter our minds - the more I come to understand that the opposite is also true.

The kinder and gentler thougths you choose to think, the kinder and gentler foods you begin to appreciate and enjoy.

I am happy to have come across a book that TOTALLY captures my thinking when it comes to food and nourishment - Alicia Silverstone's "The kind diet". If I were eating more cooked foods than I do - this is how it is done.

My weirdest habit yet - Oil pulling

Just when I thought I couldn't complicate my morning routine any more - I discovered oil pulling. I now have to get up a full hour before everyone else, to find the time to care for myself in the morning. Talking with a mouthful of oil is just not possible - and not talking with 4 kids around is equally impossible.

So, 20 minutes in the morning are devoted to a spoonful of coconut oil - with a few drops of Peppermint Essential Oil and a squrt of Neem. I swish and I swirl.

Benefits?? Well, nothing dramatic yet (and it's been several months) but that depends on what your definition of dramatic is.. My tea stains, on my teeth, FELL off (not gradually, but all in one piece) and I lost a filling. I am cursed with that nasty bacteria that causes cavities (plus I grind..) so I figured my teeth need all the help they can get.

The really great book on Oil Pulling Therapy by Dr. Bruce Fife - states that all disease starts in the mouth, and that oil pulling will protect you from chronic disease, keep your teeth white, help detoxify the entire body and your gums will be healthy too.