Together

Nobody succeeds all by themselves.

At Your Side

In the end, you'll know which people really love you.

They're the ones who see you for who you are and, no matter what, always find a way to be at your side.

Water

"Balance is the perfect state of still water.

Let that be our model.

It remains quiet within

and is not disturbed on the surface."

Confucius

Nutrition and Aging

If the only edible indiscretions you worry about are those that make you gain weight, you may have your priorities mixed up. It turns out that the worst dietary demons, including many sugary, fatty, refined and highly processed foods, do more than add thunder to your thighs, experts say — they subtract years from your life.
Nutrition, not age, determines the body’s internal chemistry, and that chemistry determines, in large part, the quality and resiliency of virtually every organ, cell and system in the body.
Everything from the condition of your skin to the quality of your bone, brain and connective tissue is determined in part by what you eat. As a result, your eating habits are a major determinant in how quickly you begin to see and feel the effects of aging.

Lightly

"Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly."

G. K. Chesterton

Success

Lots of successful people have failed
as many times as they have succeeded.

Cortisol, Aging, and Weight Loss

Cortisol (a stress hormone secreted by the adrenal glands)
How It Ages You: Stress hormones — automatically released by the body under all kinds of stressful circumstances — are antithetical to digestion in a couple of ways.
First, the release of adrenaline and cortisol — “fight-or-flight” chemicals — diverts blood toward your limbs and away from your stomach and intestines, which hinders your intestines’ ability to break down food and absorb nutrients. As a result, digestion grinds to a halt and food ferments, sending unusual metabolites into the bloodstream.
Secondly, stress throws off the gut’s acidity and, therefore, its ability to absorb certain nutrients, such as vitamin B12. As if that weren’t enough, cortisol also suppresses the body’s repair mechanisms. By eating when you’re stressed, it’s as if you are damaging your body and locking out the "repair crews".
The Fix: Slow down at mealtime. Instead of munching behind the wheel or at your desk, find a spot where you can relax and focus on your food and the pleasure of eating. If possible, eat with others whose company you enjoy, or eat in a place that makes you feel safe and happy. At home, create a relaxing atmosphere; set the table and light a candle. Just as your senses assimilate that environment in a pleasant way, your body will assimilate food in a more efficient way.

Doing What Is Right

"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -
for you'll be criticized anyway.
You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't."

Eleanor Roosevelt

Toughness

Tough times don’t last,

but tough people do.

Waiting Too Long Between Meals

Waiting too long between meals is one of the surest ways to age the body before its time. That’s because hunger pangs can lead to overeating, which may lead to obesity. Here’s how it works: A growling stomach signals “hunger” in the brain by releasing the hormone ghrelin. The problem is that it takes 30 minutes for ghrelin levels to return to normal once you’ve started to nosh. So odds are you’ll overeat.
The Fix: Don’t wait to eat until you’re ready to chew your arm off; instead, keep a little food in your stomach at all times. Schedule regular snack or meal breaks into your day, and keep a stash of healthy mini-meals available for when you’re on the go. Eat a balance of healthy proteins, carbs and fats at each meal, choosing whole foods (which digest more gradually) whenever possible.

No one eats perfectly all the time. And, occasional digressions aren’t worth stressing over. But each of us stands to benefit from improving the eating patterns that are doing our bodies and minds the most harm. Chip away at these worst-offender habits and your odds of feeling great and aging healthfully climb exponentially.

Life

Life is not easy,
especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile.

Sweetness

"Love is a fruit in season at all times,
and within reach of every hand. "

Mother Teresa

Insulin Resistance and Refined Carbs

After a meal laden with refined carbohydrates, the body’s blood-sugar levels soar, and the pancreas sprays insulin into the bloodstream to help cells convert the food’s energy (glucose) into fuel. But the body often miscalculates and releases too much insulin because (again) evolution hasn’t kept pace with the modern diet. If you eat four slices of Wonder Bread, that’s the food-density equivalent of one of your ancestors killing and eating an entire elk out on the savanna. Your body reacts with a massive surge of chemicals to digest all the stuff it thinks you just ate.
As a result of too much insulin, blood-sugar levels drop, and 30 minutes later you’re hungry again. The body wasn’t designed for this yo-yo effect. All it can do is break apart in bits and pieces, which is exactly what happens. The technical term for this effect is insulin resistance, a precursor to such age-related diseases as type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and heart disease.
The Fix: Stick to complex carbohydrates, such as legumes, vegetables and 100 percent whole grains. Because the outer layers of the grain are left intact, whole grains take longer for the body to digest, and the sugar is released in a slow, steady stream.

Kindness and Hard Work

Kindness and hard work together
will always carry you farther than intelligence.

Sugar and Aging

The human body evolved with a limited ability to break down sugar, and very limited access to it in concentrated forms, so processing the comparatively giant loads we consume nowadays puts a huge strain on our systems. Excess sugar loiters in the blood and causes trouble by glomming onto protein molecules, an age-accelerating process called glycosylation that causes cellular aging in several ways.
First, it slows down the body’s repair mechanism. Although glycosylation’s effects are mostly internal, aging skin is a prime external sign. When too much sugar in the blood causes glycosylation, the skin loses its natural repair mechanisms, explains Shawn Talbott, PhD, a nutritional biochemist and author of The Metabolic Method (Currant Book, 2008). “Sugar molecules gum up the collagen in your skin,” he says, “which makes it less elastic, makes it wrinkle faster, and means it won’t heal as quickly if it’s damaged.”

Kindness

Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.

Lao Tzu

Reputation and Honor

"Reputation is what other people know about you.
Honor is what you know about yourself."

Lois McMaster Bujold

Lucky

The harder you work,

the luckier you will become.

Gradual Adjustments

There’s a good reason that sudden, drastic changes don’t lead to long-term weight loss, and may even lead to a rebound.
Have you noticed that your weight tends to stay fairly constant week to week, even if one day you go on a junk food binge and the next day you’re fairly good? Nature designed us with optimum abilities to maintain a steady metabolic rate, because it helps us weather food shortages and sudden demands on our energies.
Unfortunately, this means that when you’ve gradually gained weight over time, your body has adapted to the new weight and now does its best to hold onto it.
So here’s what to do: You make slow, gradual adjustments to each end of the equation. And you — and only you — decide which end of the fuel-in, energy-out equation to emphasize and when.

Fearless

"Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers
but to be fearless when facing them."

Rabindranath Tagore

Discipline Defined

Discipline is choosing what you want most

over what you want right now.

"Meatless Mondays"

Go vegetarian for a day. Join the Meatless Monday campaign. Following a plant-based diet may reduce oxidative stress and inflammation.
There’s no doubt about it: Most Americans are eating way too much meat. Some research suggests that a diet that focuses on plant-based whole foods (think fruit and nuts over energy bars) can reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and perhaps a whole slew of other diseases.
Why not try one day a week without meat? Keep in mind that shouldn’t mean a plateful of pasta instead. Remember, only one-quarter of your dish should be dedicated to grains — especially if they’re refined.

Held Back

"We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past,
but by the love we're not extending in the present."

Marianne Williamson

Change

Change is often resisted

when it is needed

the most.

Anger

"Anger is like a thorn in the heart."

Yiddish Proverb

Healthy Snacking

There is definitely a healthy way to snack. Avoid sugary items like candy and soda, and your snacks need to not be consuming enough calories to constitute a meal. Instead, steer towards foods that will satisfy you and keep you feeling fuller longer.
Fruits and vegetables are always a safe bet because they are low in fat and calories. (Just be sure to avoid high-calorie dips.) Yogurt, fruit smoothies, even a slice of whole-wheat toast all make great snacks during the day.
Combining lean protein, some healthy fat, and complex carbohydrates will help you feel fuller longer.

Pattern

If you keep doing what you’re doing,

you’ll keep getting what you’ve gotten.

God's Name

"You may call God love, you may call God goodness.
But the best name for God is compassion."

Meister Eckhart

Responding Better To Stress

Stress driving you nuts? Adding walnuts and flaxseed to your diet could help your body respond better to pressure.
You can’t eliminate all sources of stress but you can change how you respond to it. A small study at Penn State found it could be as easy as swapping out some of your bad fats for omega-3 fats like walnuts and flaxseed. Volunteers who had been eating 1.3 ounces of walnuts and a tablespoon of walnut oil daily for six weeks showed a smaller surge in blood pressure when subjected to stressful situations than people on the typical American diet. In addition, their “lousy” LDL cholesterol and resting blood pressure fell while they were on the diet.

People who were given walnuts and one and a half tablespoons of flaxseed oil experienced similar benefits, as well as a drop in their C-reactive protein — an inflammation marker associated with heart disease. According to researcher Sheila West, people who show an exaggerated biological response to stress are at higher risk of heart disease.

By cutting out bad fats and replacing them with heart-healthy omega-3s, you may be able to reduce that risk.

Waiting

If you’re waiting for the perfect conditions, ideas or plans to get started,

you’ll never achieve anything.

Healthier Pizza!

Turn pizza into a nutritious meal using 100 percent whole-wheat crust and plenty of sauce and veggies. Go easy on the cheese.
Pizza doesn’t have to be an unhealthy indulgence. Make your own nutritious, delicious and antioxidant-rich pie at home using whole-wheat flour, extra tomato sauce and veggies, and just a small amount of cheese.
Make a little go a long way by using high-quality, fresh-made mozzarella, which tends to have much more flavor than the prepackaged variety. Add an extra punch of flavor with fresh herbs and greens, like arugula and basil, or drizzle with an olive oil and basil emulsion after baking.

Purposely Walking Into The Day

"Protect your vision.
Prevail over adversity.
Persevere in the midst of turmoil.
Passionately act upon your convictions.
Purposely walk into the day."

Mary Anne Radmacher

Nope

What we don’t start today won’t be finished by tomorrow.

Attitude

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men
who walked through the huts comforting others,
giving away their last piece of bread...
They offer sufficient proof that everything
can be taken from a man but one thing:
to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances,
to choose one's own way."

Viktor E. Frankl

Biking Off The Pounds

Want to keep the pounds off while sitting down? Prevent middle-age weight gain with a daily 35-minute bike ride.
Pedal your way to a slimmer you. According to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, those who rode their bicycles for at least four hours a week were less likely to see their scales creep upward. Overweight and obese people benefited the most, seeing results from just two to three hours of bicycling a week.
The study followed more than 18,000 people for 16 years. During that time, participants put on an average of 20.5 pounds. Researchers found that the more time participants spent on their bikes, the less weight they gained — and every little bit helped. Even a five-minute bicycle jaunt every day helped keep some weight gain at bay.
According to the research, bicycling may be more comfortable than brisk walking for some overweight folks. If it’s been awhile since you’ve been on a bike, rent one from your local shop or while you’re on vacation. Biking is a great way to take in scenery, and you can cover more miles than you would on foot. Don’t forget to always wear your helmet!

Self-Dialogue

By simply changing your personal self-dialogue you can bring positive things to your life. Here are the three statements that shape positive self-dialogue:

I am - is a statement of who you are.
I can - is a statement of your potential.
I will - is a statement of positive change in your life.

I AM statements are positive affirmations of a real state of being that exists in you.
I CAN statements are positive affirmations of your ability to accomplish goals.
I WILL statements are positive affirmations of a change you want to achieve.

Circumstances

10% of our lives is decided by uncontrollable circumstances.
90% is decided by how we react to those circumstances.

Optimism

"Although the world is full of suffering,
it is full also of the overcoming of it.
My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil,
but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good
and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good,
that it may prevail."

Helen Keller

Choosing Well

"To live is to choose.
But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for,
where you want to go and why you want to get there."

Kofi Annan

Finding Opportunities

It’s not so much about finding opportunities

as it is about creating them.

Empty Sugary Beverages

Nix soft drinks from the house: Drinking just one sugary beverage a day increases a child’s risk of becoming obese by 60 percent. Soda and soft drinks may seem like an innocuous treat — after all, they are fat-free. But a 12-ounce can of Coke has almost three times as much sugar as a serving of Oreos. According to research conducted at Children’s Hospital in Boston and the Harvard School of Public Health, most adolescents drink soft drinks daily, with boys averaging 20 ounces a day. That, says lead researcher David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD, director of the obesity program at Children’s Hospital, amounts to 15 to 20 teaspoons of sugar a day, just from soda, fruit punch and other sugar-sweetened beverages. Since calories from drinks don’t fill us up, we tend not to cut back on calories elsewhere. That can lead to weight gain. Wean yourself and your family off soda with fruit-juice-sweetened seltzer.

ARTIST

I AM THE ARTIST OF MY OWN LIFE.

WORDS ARE MY PAINTBRUSH, AND MY LIFE IS THE CANVAS.

WHAT I PAINT WITH WORDS IS THE WAY I SEE MYSELF; THE WAY I SEE MY ENTIRE REALITY.

WHAT I PAINT IS MY LIFE, AND HOW IT LOOKS DEPENDS ON HOW I USE THE WORD.

Giving

''Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something: they're trying to find someone who's going to make them feel good. In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take. ''

Anthony Robbins

Stevia

Try Stevia
A natural sugar alternative that actually nourishes the pancreas and has no calories.
Stevia is an herbal extract from the Stevia Rebaudiana leaf that has been shown to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure.

Responding

"We cannot choose our external circumstances,
but we can always choose how to respond to them."

Epictetus

Guided Imagery

Visualize a calmer you. Guided imagery, a process in which you picture yourself relaxed and in control, can be a powerful stress reliever.
In the middle of a stressful moment, who hasn’t wished they could escape to a tropical island or mountain retreat? Envisioning yourself in a calm and tranquil place can actually help bring stress levels down. Known as guided imagery, or creative visualization, this relaxation technique has been shown to reduce stress — as well as anxiety and pain.
One study at the University of Miami found that guided imagery, along with music, lowered levels of depression, fatigue and stress. Another study, involving breast cancer patients, showed that visualization helped reduce stress, boost mood and improve their quality of life.
I don’t have to tell you that stress can take a major toll on your mood and self-esteem. When you feel like a circumstance is out of your control or beyond your coping abilities, you get stressed. By transporting you to a place where you’re relaxed and in control, guided imagery can help you feel like you’re in the driver’s seat. When you regain a sense of control, the situation often feels much more manageable.

SELF-MASTERY

WITH AWARENESS I KNOW THAT I CAN CHANGE MY VIRTUAL WORLD BY CHANGING WHAT I BELIEVE.

WHAT IS REAL I CANNOT CHANGE, AND IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT I BELIEVE.

SELF-MASTERY BEGINS WITH SELF-AWARENESS.

Mirrors

Because we are all mirrors for each other, looking at the people in your life can tell you a lot about yourself. Who you are can be laid bare to you through what you see in others.
It is easy to see the traits you do not like in others. It is much more difficult to realize that you possess those same traits.
Often, the habits, attitudes, and behaviors of others are closely linked to our unconscious and unresolved issues.

Fruits/Vegetables

Not sure if you’re getting enough fruits and vegetables? Make sure they take up half your plate at every meal.
Scratching your head over how many cups of spinach or broccoli equal a serving size? Forget the food scales and measuring cups. The new USDA healthy-eating icon MyPlate is making it easier than ever to figure out how to create a healthful and balanced diet.
According to the new directive, 50 percent of the food you eat should be a fruit or vegetable. Think of produce as your main dish and meat as the accompaniment (25 percent). Fill the remaining quarter of your plate with whole grains or starchy vegetables, like brown rice, quinoa or sweet potatoes.
For breakfast, choose a bowl of fruit with a dollop of plain, low-fat yogurt and a sprinkle of low-fat whole-grain granola. For lunch, think grilled chicken (without the skin), veggies and hummus on a 100 percent whole-wheat pita, along with a side salad. Dinner could be grilled fish with roasted red potatoes, corn on the cob and a cucumber and tomato salad.

VIRTUAL REALITY

LIFE CREATES REALITY, AND I RE-CREATE REALITY BY INTERPRETING IT WITH THE WORD.

THE VIRTUAL REALITY THAT I CREATE IS MY PERSONAL CREATION; IT IS MY ART, AND IT IS ONLY "TRUTH" TO ME.

MY MIND IS A VIRTUAL REALITY.