Lisa's Blog

"Where in your life are you avoiding a choice?  Are you willing to make self-honouring choices today?  If you don't make clear and conscious choices, you'll be stuck with whatever shows up. " Iyanla Vanzart This is quite a confronting quote. But there is so much in it... The quote eludes to how even not making a choice is actually making a choice.  "Are you willing to make self-honouring choices today?"  Wow, this is important, how often in life are the choices you make in line with what you really want, really feel, really believe.  By making self-honouring choices you start to make different sorts of decisions and live a life more in line with your values and meeting your needs.  This is powerful. Are there things in your life that you are putting off and hoping will just go away? We never get to hide from ourselves, so if it is a life choice that you are putting off and it affects your wellbeing, taking ownership and doing what you need to do... can be very liberating. Sometimes it is challenging to stand up for yourself or to have the courage to make decisions or choices that other people might not understand and might not approve of.  One of the most important things you can do for yourself and your health is to be true to yourself.  Make choices in line with your value systems and in line with your beliefs.   Sometimes it might make you unpopular, sometimes it might upset others.  Dr Demartini once explained: "If I have to choose to (upset) myself or (upset) somebody else, I choose them", while this may come across as quite a selfish point of view in some ways it makes sense,  at the end of the day, many people will come in and out of your lives, but you are stuck with you and your choices forever. And one interesting thing I have observed is how often the choices you make will actually inspire people or encourage people, empowering them or giving them permission to make self honouring choices as well.  Have the courage to stand up for yourself, believe in yourself and make the choices you know you need to make. "If you don't stand for something, you may fall for anything." You will always be glad you did... and know that whatever choice you end up making will be exactly the right one for you at this moment and for this circumstance. Deep down you know exactly what it is you want and need  ... trust that.

Does your lunch choice make cents? Just how much is clever marketing and a desire for apparent convenience costing you? The courier mail investigated childrens lunch boxes, here's some of their findings... "On average, a lunchbox with pre-packaged food costs $33 a week compared to a fresh food lunchbox at $14 a week." You could save nearly $20 a week PER PERSON! But it is not only costing you financially, there is a much bigger loss attached: and it's certainly not weight loss... it's your family's health. "The daily recommended intake for a 10-year-old child is 8500kJ a day, and 45g-80g of fat. A comparison revealed: The unhealthiest lunchbox contained a total of 61.2g of fat and equalled 5208kJ. However, a healthy lunchbox comes in at 2678kJ and a total of 18g of fat - a difference of 2530kJ. "An average 10-year-old weighing 42kg would need to walk for more than four hours every day just to burn up the extra energy between the two lunchboxes. "The short-term health effects for children that eat a poor diet include difficulty concentrating because of dehydration from high salt content in food, constipation from lack of fibre and poor behaviour." Click here for Courier Mail's full article. For more information and some great tips... on children's nutrition and fussy eaters...

Aaah... comfort eating. The sheer enwrapment and mm-mmm-mmm of snuggling up under the doona on a cold winter's evening in front a fabulous chick flick with a cup of milo and a timtam. You nip off the ends and dunk the tim tam into the mug of hot milky liquid and suck deeply, oooh, the decadent ooze of warm soft slightly granular chocolately middle floods into your mouth. Heavenly, quickly before it drops into your mug you shove the rest into your mouth and the chocolate explosion is so gorgeous, you close your eyes near purring. You stare ahead at the screen and savour the last of the experience licking the chocolate off each one of your fingers... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Delicious, blissful... addictive even... You reach for another, then another... ooh, it is so rich, you are nearly feeling ill, just one last one. But your need is insatiable. Physically you couldn't possibly have another, but psychological, oh yes you could! Certainly you have at least one comfort food you reach for when you are feeling anxious, stressed, down, tired, frustrated, bored or just wanting a little "pick me up and make me feel better"... Here are some of other peoples choices...

• Cheese toastie
• Apple pie
• Macaroni cheese
• Baked beans on toast
• Chocolate
• Ice-cream
• Milk and cookies
• Tea and biscuits
• Tea and toast
• Chicken Soup
• Pizza
• Mashed potato
• Potato Chips
• Peanut butter and honey or jam sandwich
• Junket
• Bread dipped in balsamic and olive oil
• Pavlova
• Roast dinner

It is interesting to note they typically have one very telling thing in common: they are high in refined carbohydrates. So what is it that makes us choose to eat certain foods over others, and why is it these foods can make you feel better when you are feeling down, you might be wondering... It may come as a surprise to learn that your comfort food of choice has a lot to do with your upbringing.  Generally background culture tends to affect comfort food trends: for example one the most popular comfort food in the UK is boiled egg and soldiers (toast cut into strips for dipping into the soft yolk) where in Ireland Irish stews are popular.  So comfort foods are not necessarily unhealthy and are often far from gourmet.  Being male or female also seems to affect your comfort food of choice. Men are more likely to choose meals and the ladies are more likely to choose snacky foods. What did your parents give you to cheer you up when you were growing up? Did you have a favourite meal request? Were certain foods associated with special occasions? You may find your kids will request certain favourite foods (similar to how you used to request your certain favourite dishes from your mother, grandmother or even your father) ... lentil soup or macaroni cheese, that will for the rest of their lives be imprinted in their brain as mom's recipe (in my case, my dad makes the most glorious soup).  Fresh pawpaw always reminds me of my mom and being a little girl, we had these gorgeous honeygold pawpaws and she would get home from work, pick one, cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and hand me a spoon, then we would sit on the back step and dig in.  I still love to sit outside in the sun and eat fresh pawpaw.  The attachment to the food is much less about the food than about the feelings of nurturing, giving, and unconditional love and safety that come with feeding. The sense of home, love and belonging. Not to mention the feel good reward, as mom is able to provide for her little darlings something that they like to eat and nourishes them, and the little darlings get the positive warm feedback overflow from this. Why do we comfort eat? Any sort of emotional eating is usually an attempt to offset negative emotions.  Triggers include stress, anxiety, boredom, anger, loneliness, frustration and sadness.   There seems to be a couple of explanations for comfort eating, the reason is pretty simple, it makes us feel better, temporarily at least.  One possible explanation from a study in October 2007 Nature revealed that the brain releases a key signaling hormone associated with pleasure when our stomach becomes full.  So chemically, comfort eating makes us feel better. Another explanation is psychologically, comfort eating makes us feel better. Comfort foods tend to be described as foods that soothe the psyche, they typically relate back to pleasant memories and associations from your childhood, giving you a sense of nostalgia, safety and security when eaten.  But has this changed?  Nowadays comfort foods tend to come in boxes or in packages, they are not the homemade comforts of old necessarily... and actually some children have never even tasted their parents home cooking! However the association and happy memory can still be there.  For example one client reported being taken to McDonalds everytime after a doctors appointment, therefore she connected eating McDonalds with feeling better. Interestingly though, there is some physiological sense attached to some of the more unhealthy high sugar, high fat comfort foods that are reached for in times of stress particularly later in life, when mom isn't around to make the comfort food, you might reach for another... There are a few possible explanations for this... one is that some of these carbohydrate foods contain an amino acid: tryptophan, which is used to make serotonin, commonly recognised as the happy hormone. Tryptophan utilisation is aided by the presence of glucose... so these sugary foods, chocolate is a good example, it contains both tryptophan and sugar, which means that you get a bit of a tryptophan kick, making more serotonin available. Chocolate also contains other chemicals that make you feel good... which is why it's such a popular choice.  And it's also why if you are low in serotonin or feeling a little down, chocolate actually can make you feel a bit better. In addition, the sugar rush to your brain, can feel good, its a little druglike! Another chemical dopamine is also involved in this pleasurable endevour.  Dopamine is your pleasure seeking or pleasure controlling neurotransmitter.  (And therefore is largely connected to motivation.)  The cells in the dopamine system in the brain are active when we are taking or anticipating pleasure in some activity.  Tests in monkeys have found cells fire up in response to taste of pleasant food.  It seems that the dopamine levels contribute to this wanting, acting as a primary motivator to seek out things we believe we want or will get pleasure from.   Interestingly studies conducted on rats found that when dopamine blocking drugs were used to shut the system down, rats would starve even when surrounded by mountains of tasty food.      The dopamine system also interacts with a class of brain chemicals called opiods (because of their similarity to opium).  Opiods seem to be directly involved in pleasure.  What is especially interesting about this is that in some people casein (a protein) found in milk can actually act like an opiate in the brain, due to a metabolism problem.  These people will generally feel a very strong attachment or enjoyment to milk as a comfort food.  The injection of opiates (chemical form) into wide areas of a rat brain resulted in both more eating and more positive behaviours towards foods.  So these compounds can actually trigger you to eat more, which consequently can contribute to regular overindulgence and weight gain. The reverse is also true, taking an opioid-blocking drug makes things that are usually delicious seem less so!   Is there a cure for comfort eating?  No and there needn't be!   What can you enjoy that isn't going to become problematic to your waist line and still give you comfort? Or how can you let comfort eating serve you and not sabotage you? Firstly, try to connect with what is stirring you emotionally?  Are you upset, bored, anxious, nervous... Then you can try some tactics: like distraction... delay the gratification, don't give in immediately, wait 15 minutes, nurture yourself another way or find an alternative way to give yourself pleasure or comfort.  Break the habit of comfort eating...  Try calling a friend, go for a walk, run a bath, go shopping... if that doesn't work, seek out the best quality version of your comfort food (definitely don't keep them at home, or keep a stock of healthy comfort foods) and sit and give it all of your attention, don't do anything else other than eat and enjoy in your comfort food.  Eat it slowly, one mouth full at a time and savour each bite.  This way you are less likely to overdo it, soon you realise it isn't really about the food its about the "vibe" and association, whatever you do enjoy the treat and DEFINITELY don't feel guilty.  And remember really any food can become a comfort food, with enough positive association around it:  a Chai Soy Latte has become one for me, raisin toast with cinnamon and a thin spread of my butter and olive oil mix, a couple of pieces of dark chocolate with almonds or hazelnuts, a big bowl of minestrone or pumpkin soup, and polenta and tomato relish because it reminds me of South Africa.  It is also useful to consider and take advantage of other ways to nurture yourself when you are needing comfort. A good long soaking candlelit bath with essential oils like rose geranium and ylang ylang also brings me great comfort, I feel like I am getting a great big warm hug by the water and the glow of the candles. Getting a foot rub or a reflexology treatment or a relaxing massage can be tremendously therapeutic.   Because the mechanisms that control the wanting for things are not the same as those that control the mechanism for liking them, you can crave something very much and take little or no pleasure in it once you have it... so be sure you do take all the pleasure you can from the experience, and if you aren't enjoying it, stop.  Find something else that will give you some level of pleasure. So, relish in your comforts, treat yourself often, be kind to yourself absolutely, but do so with awareness, keeping an eye out for destructive and hard to get rid of habits.

The answer is no... There are many other ways to get enough calcium without needing to drink cow's milk. Read Harvard's full report, get great non dairy sources of calcium and learn some of the reasons to avoid milk...

Milk poured in a glass. With clipping path.

Shopping for food can be an overwhelming experience, there are SO many different products out there.  Many of them are shamelessly marketing health claims at you these days... how do you see through that, how do you get the one up on these sneaky suppliers.  If you want to choose healthy foods, shop for foods that most closely resemble their healthy form and don't come in packages or boxes or plastic, stack your shopping cart high with those foods, and then add some of the other convenient foods that you like to have about. And you could use the Heart Tick as a guide: remember though, some foods that don't have the heart tick can still be healthy and some even healthier than tick approved food. But it is a useful easy starting guide, every little helps!

Written By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio   "To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written."   My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:   1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good. 2. When in doubt, just take the next small step. 3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. 4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch. 5. Pay off your credit cards every month. 6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree. 7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone. 8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it. 9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck. 10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile. 11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present. 12. It's OK to let your children see you cry. 13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about. 14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it. 15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks. 16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind. 17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful. 18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger. 19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else. 20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer. 21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special. 22. Over prepare, then go with the flow. 23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple. 24. The most important sex organ is the brain. 25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you. 26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?' 27. Always choose life. 28. Forgive everyone everything. 29. What other people think of you is none of your business. 30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time. 31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change. 32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does. 33. Believe in miracles. 34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do. 35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now. 36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young. 37. Your children get only one childhood. 38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved. 39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere. 40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's,we'd grab ours back. 41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need. 42. The best is yet to come. 43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up. 44. Yield. 45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift." [caption id="attachment_278" align="alignnone" width="650" caption="Carpe Diem!"][/caption]   Thanks for sharing Ros!

Thai Style Pumpkin Soup Ingredients: Pumpkin, sweet potato, garlic, ginger, fresh coriander, chilli, vegetable stock, coconut milk. The creating: Saute 2 cloves of crushed garlic and 1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger in 1 teaspoon of coconut oil. (Add a little fresh chilli to your liking). Peel and Chop up 1 butternut or half a small pumpkin and 1 large sweet potato. Throw these into the pot with a litre of vegetable stock. Bring to boil then simmer until cooked. Turn heat to low and add a tin of coconut milk (You can add another tin or more stock/water if it is too thick). Stir well so that pumpkin and potato pieces break up and soup thickens (you can use a potato masher). Serve with fresh coriander. Rocket Salad with Black Mission Figs, Cherry Tomatoes and Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette Ingredients: 4 cups Rocket, cleaned and torn into bite sized pieces 4 figs 8 cherry tomatoes, cut in half Goats cheese Pine nuts Dressing: 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon honey 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil The Creating: Arrange first the rocket, then the tomatoes, then the cheese and lastly the figs. Cut a criss-cross the figs (not quite to the bottom) - 1 fig per person is always a good start. Squeeze the base of the fig to expose the inside, using your thumbs and forefingers. Arrange beautifully. Make the dressing: In blender or food processor or shaker: mix Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, black pepper and honey. Process until smooth and slowly add the olive oil until emulsified. Variation: Pear, Parmesan and Rocket Salad: Replace the figs with pear, Replace the goats cheese with shaved parmesan Rocket and Tuna Salad: Quick and Tasty Lunch Recipe 2 handfuls fresh rocket 1 handful cherry tomatoes 1 tin of tuna (You could use seared tuna steak for evening dinner)

Place all ingredients into a bowl and drizzle with olive oil, and a squeeze of lemon juice or balsamic or apple cider vinegar

 

Optional Extras:

 

3 baby potatoes/new potatoes boiled or microwaved and chopped in half, or add some boiled drained quinoa and some fresh avocado for a delicious variation and a more substantial lunch.

Had SO much fun this morning at McDowall Village "kindie".  They are having May Healthy Month and invited me along to play some games and have some fun with the kids (and of course get them excited about eating fruit and vegetables, some might argue a mammoth task!).  Well it was an absolute hit, one little guy bit into my broccoli!  (RAW, admittedly he spat it out afterwards but it took everything in my power to keep from laughing out loud.)  They were so enthusiastic and engaged, "These strawberries smell yummy, can we eat them".  "Miss Lisa, can I have some apple!" "Can we eat this carrot please!!!"  It was VERY exciting and I just wish I could have recorded it for all those sceptical mum's and dad's out there.  One of the teachers came out afterwards and said, wow, I have never seen 23 kids get so excited about apples before! (My secret weapon and dear friend I must admit, did most of the work!  Mr apple slinky- introduced to me by my friend Gina!)  The kids loved it... For tips on getting your children to enjoy healthy food and to buy your own apple slinky machine and get your kids EXCITED about eating fruit, check out Children's Nutrition

If you thought exercise was too difficult and you are afraid to try something new, get inspired by this video. Find new and interesting ways to exercise that are fun...