A Good Book I Haven't Read

If you dismiss sluggishness, aches, and forgetfulness as "a symptom of aging", you are on the wrong track! We as a human race have been woefully mistreating our bodies for the past generation. We've missed the boat on food, gone off the rails with pharmaceuticals, and jumped without a parachute concerning our exercise!

I am about to recommend a book I haven't actually read yet. But I did just put the CD on hold at the library, so expect an update at some point in the near future!

The book is The Ultramind Solution: Fix your broken brain by healing your body first, by Dr. Mark Hyman. He is a well-respected health guy who's been on all the TV shows and written several books, which is why I'm not worried about my recommendation. I recently heard Dr. Hyman speak on-line, and actually took notes; this is where the following info comes from. Also, it jibes with what I've heard elsewhere, and what I've experienced myself.

Let's start with food and nutrition. Yes, these are separate entities because often what we call "food" isn't actually nutritious. For example, sugar, soybean and vegetable oils, and the things that are added to our foods such as artificial coloring. Toss in the sugar substitutes and you have some folks' daily diet!

Anti-nutrients like these lead to brain drain and physical downgrades. If you switch to eating a real food diet you can upgrade your biology in days. Yes, Days! Bring on the veggies! (And this is the perfect time for that -- summer!!) Get more calories from good fats. Discover how to upgrade your gut biome, that lovely garden in your belly that is probably overrun by weeds that are sucking up the nutrients that you do take in!

What else? Well, get a decent night's sleep. Take a real good look at your list of prescriptions. Are there some that you can reduce or eliminate (with your doc's help) by upgrading your habits? Do you know how to exercise effectively? That "Calories Burned" gadget on your elliptical is not as trustworthy and useful as you'd like to think!

Create a meditation habit. Start small but know that allowing this habit to grow and strengthen will soon be the best hour (yes hour!) you spend all day.

Don't ask how you can cure these "symptoms of aging". Start with preventing them in the first place! And if you're already in the throes, step back, upgrade, and be joyful.

Here's my own question to you:
Why does the thought of a lifetime of exercise and kale sound horrible . . . but a lifetime of aches, pains, being left on a bench at the zoo because you can't walk far, not fitting in the seat at the movies, noticing your brain slowing down, and feeling tired and crappy, sound just peachy? Think about it. 

Water, Water, Everywhere!

Weight Watchers ruined water for us. Didn’t lose any weight last week? Well, how much water did you drink? Tummy growling? Drink a full glass of water before you have a snack; maybe you’re just thirsty!  True; but there’s more, much more, to plentiful water consumption than just weight loss. Besides, if water was the magic weight loss cure, I’d be thin as a reed . . . Yes, drink plenty of water, but for a hundred different reasons, not just weight loss.

I can hear you already: But when I drink the recommended amount of water I spend half my day in the bathroom. Come on, it doesn’t take that long to pee unless you’re still wearing pencil skirts and panty hose. (That was a workout!) Wearing jeans, I bet you take less than a minute in there, and that includes washing your hands. You can cut that time down by simply staying in yoga pants all day (my personal tip). It’s recommended to get up and move every hour anyway, so with frequent potty breaks, you’re killing two birds with one stone!

Consuming the recommended amount of water (50-80% of your body weight in ounces) can seem daunting, but when you want your body to be clean and smelling fresh, is your first choice to take a little bowlful of water and swish yourself with that? No, you take a nice long shower or soak in a tub full of water (ever mindful of water conservation, of course!) It’s the same with drinking water. You need copious amounts to clean and refresh all the nooks and crannies of your inner workings. Water washes away the lactic acid loosened by your morning workout. It keeps your saliva flowing and keeps your digestion moving. Water carries oxygen to your muscles and to your brain, keeping you strong and smart! Water lubricates your joints so you remain flexible and pain-free. Water is used by every bodily system, so drink up.

And there’s more! Harken back to high school science class, or to that episode of Desperate Housewives when Edie is killed off, and you’ll remember: Water conducts electricity. Our bodies’ energy systems need water to function properly. A glass of water and a few deep breaths can quickly raise your energy, as the water carries the oxygen (and the million other beneficial things we breathe in that we don’t even have names for yet) through the body to enliven us from tip to toe. Water conducts your body-electricity to enhance your own EFT or Reiki or meditation practice. If you can’t get out of a slump, or your brain is woozy, breathe and drink (uh, water, of course) and sit up straight and notice the difference.

Water is the magic elixir. ‘Nuff said.

Just being near water makes us feel great!

P.S.  Well, maybe one more thing: Go ahead and put lemon or mint in your water, drink herbal tea and a moderate amount of coffee, just don’t add sugar or, shudder, artificial sweeteners. And remember, this is the Om Minute and not the Om Doctor (which you probably realized from my Desperate reference) so feel free to do your own research, both online and through personal trial-and-error. Salut!

Standing on One Foot

It’s all about Balance.   When one foot is off the ground, you don’t want to tip over.  In my yoga classes I advise my students to practice balancing in all sorts of funny places.  Stand on one foot when waiting in line at the grocery store.  Challenge yourself by putting your socks on without sitting down. Revisit childhood by walking on top of the cement things in parking lots.  Improvement comes quickly, and it’s actually kind of fun!

Let’s pull that idea into the rest of our lives.  For instance, I just had a piece of leftover birthday cake for breakfast. (A sliver, really!)  I am now standing on one foot, nutritionally.  So for the rest of the day, I will practice my balance, eating wholesome foods. I’ll still be upright by dinnertime!

And exercise -- an extended four-letter word for many of us.  Step one is to get some.  Step two is to balance it with your own lifestyle, and for the highest good of the ol’ bod.  My preferred exercise is yoga, so balance for me is adding a brisk walk with the dog every afternoon, giving my body the sensation of fast, repetitive movement.  If you are a runner, taking off for miles around town, the addition of a stretchy yoga class will reacquaint you with muscles you forgot you had, balancing your quickness with the awareness of smaller, slower movements.

Finally, look for a balance of information.  Find a way to be aware of what is going on in the world around you without being inundated with negativity.  Look for news media that doesn’t exaggerate the bad and downplay the good; learn to change the subject when conversations turn to gossip; limit your exposure to people or things that drag your spirits down.

Look into all aspects of your life and find balance.  Then, when events come that start to tip you over, you will have the resources to recover from the wobble.  Maybe your hand will touch the wall for a moment; and once in a while life will knock us over completely.  If we have made Balance an automatic response system in our bodies and minds, we will find ourselves upright in the end.