Hosting a party can be complicated these days. Here’s a musical description of the dilemma…then some of my practical suggestions for coping.
Partying With Health-Conscious Friends
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Category Archives: All Posts—newest first
Making Marshmallows? Yes!
So there you have it. I decided in favour of tradition. I got out my recipe card and the 1950s candy thermometer that my aunt passed on to me. I went back to making marshmallows for Christmas.
Not without some thought, as you might have guessed. Last week I said I’d be thinking about it, considering that sugar is a primary ingredient in homemade marshmallows. So this post is about how my thinking got me from there to here. If you want the recipe, you’ll find it here. Continue reading
Using Less Sugar in Holiday Sweets
It’s not surprising that we over-use sugar in this culture. As I discussed last week, the sugar industry long ago manipulated public perception to believe that fat is really bad for our health and there is no need to be concerned about sugar. That isn’t actually true.
You can find lots of information about why to avoid sugar. Google it and you’ll see discussions of insulin resistance, inflammation, triglycerides, hypertension, fatty liver and, of course, diabetes.
And then this came from Dr. Alan Christianson in a mailing about not getting sick during the holidays. White blood cells are part of the immune system and when they are weakened, we are more likely to come down with a cold or the flu. Continue reading
Food matters.
Three years ago, I decided to educate myself as part of a self-designed program of recovery from complete thyroid impairment and endometrial cancer. I wanted to know what would give me the best shot at repairing the physical devastation I’d experienced.
It was my good luck that this decision occurred just when on-line health summits hit the Internet. I watched. I listened. I took notes.
Continue reading
What to eat !??
My recent posts have covered a lot about the mental-emotional aspects of becoming well. But without doubt, the food we eat plays an equally important role. That will be my focus for the next few weeks.
What to eat…and why?
That’s not a simple question. It depends on your individual constitution and condition. And even if you’ve got a handle on that, you’ll find conflicting opinions among practitioners.
I’m going to start by giving you a chance to listen to Dr. Sarah Myhill. Then in the next few weeks, I’ll unpack some of the concepts she introduces and questions they might raise.
Dr. Myhill is a conventionally trained medical doctor in the UK. She was in general practice with the National Health Service (their version of medicare) for twenty years…and left to set up a private practice when the system did not allow her to practise the holistic, functional medicine that she is passionate about.
She was frustrated by the conventional approach with its focus on symptom-suppressing medications. When patients had chronic illnesses, there was no opportunity to investigate why the person was in this condition—in other words, what were the mechanisms causing the illness and what could be done to address them?
You’ll get two things from watching this video
- Well-considered answers to a wide range of questions from an experienced practitioner.
- An excellent example of functional thinking about why our bodies may not function well and what can be done about it.
Stress: An Uncommon View
The usual view of stress:
Stress is the enemy—to be avoided if possible, and managed when unavoidable.
But what if…
Believe it or not, we need stress.
Process or Goals?
Last week I wrote about the inch-by-inch principle. This is the viewpoint that regaining health is a process rather than a goal. After reading that post, you may have thought I’m a proponent of aimless wandering through life. Not at all!
Why can’t it be both a process and a goal?
I’ve always been intrigued by the notion of having my cake and eating it too. Why not a process with direction instead of one or the other? Continue reading
Cultivating Health
We live in a culture oriented toward goals rather than processes. The expectation is that we set a goal, achieve it, and then that’s done. It’s a linear way of looking at things, and it works for some people in some instances. Health doesn’t work that way.
Achieving health is an organic process with built-in feedback loops. As changes are made, we get internal information about what’s working and what isn’t. Then we adjust accordingly and go from there. Like gardening. Continue reading
Understanding Energy
Understanding energy is important for anyone wanting to remain or become well. We are made of energy and immersed in it. Energy affects us even though we don’t see it.
Lynne McTaggart is a master at talking about energy in relatable ways. The hallmark of her work is thorough research and clear expression about science-based discoveries in the worlds of health and spirituality. She has written four books including one called The Field, and she edits a monthly health journal, “What Doctors Don’t Tell You.”
Below is a full-length recording of her presentation to a leadership conference for business people and entrepreneurs. I like this presentation because: Continue reading