Negative

Measure Of Wealth

The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.

Similarities

People are pretty much alike.

It's only that our differences are more susceptible
to definition than our similarities.

 Linda Ellerbee

Seasonal Produce

Instead of buying the same fruits and vegetables year-round, shop for seasonal produce. You’ll get more bang for your buck if you stock up on foods when they’re prime for picking. Plus, it encourages you to buy fruits and vegetables that you don’t usually eat.
 Eating a wide assortment of colorful fruits and vegetables helps ensure that you’re getting as many healthful nutrients as possible from your diet. Some nutritious, cheap springtime picks include strawberries, pineapple, spinach, mustard greens and broccoli.

Think!

Understanding

"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding".


 Albert Einstein

Take 10 Pounds Off!

Take 10 pounds off: Trade high-calorie drinks like soda and lemonade for zero-calorie beverages like water or unsweetened iced tea An easy way to drop 10 pounds by next year? Cut out all sugar-laden drinks and replace them with water.
 A new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who switched to zero-calorie drinks lost four or five pounds in six months. In addition to experiencing weight loss, those who chose water, seltzer or diet drinks over sweetened ones also displayed lower fasting glucose levels and better hydration levels.
Why does that matter? Well, good blood sugar levels can help head off diabetes and inflammation. And research suggests that even mild dehydration can have a negative effect on our mood, energy level and ability to think clearly. Because some studies suggest that drinking more than one soda a day — regular or diet — increases your risk of obesity and diabetes, I recommend sticking with good old-fashioned H2O.

Alone/ Lonely

Doors

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens,

but often we look so long at the closed door
that we do not see the one that has been opened for us".


 Helen Keller

Eat At Home

Eat at home/learn how to cook.

This does not mean you need to go to culinary school, but trying one new recipe a week would be phenomenal. Obesity is linked to a frequency of eating out; cooking at home promotes better nutrition and better family dynamics.
 It's very easy to fall in the trap of "convenience" foods, but again and again, it's been shown that making your own food is key to losing weight and increasing nutrition, for yourself and your family. Maybe you begin with trying to bring your lunch to work twice a week and look up a couple of recipes to try for dinner.
Just start somewhere.

Regrets

Power

Power is of two kinds.
 One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love.
 Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.

 Gandhi

Education

"There is no education like adversity".



 Benjamin Disraeli

More Efficient Cardio

Make your exercise effective and efficient.

I'll just come right out and say it: basic cardio is very nearly a waste of time, at least for people thinking it helps weight loss.

Spending an hour on the treadmill might help your circulation, and I'm a huge proponent of exercise for many reasons, but most people are not getting healthier because your body gets used to doing the same thing, day in day out. Yes, it's better than nothing, but what if you could spend less time at it and get better results? Research is showing that combining some cardio with intervals (short bursts of intensity) gets you much better cardiovascular results, speeds up your metabolism for hours, teaches your body to burn fat, and slows aging. Add in lifting some heavy things, like doing some weight training, and you will increase your muscle mass as you age, increase your bone density, and burn more calories at rest. This kind of exercise can be incorporated regardless of age or prior experience. An 80-year old could do some walking, add in 4 reps of speed walking for 15 seconds apiece, do some lunges, and be home in 20 minutes. Yoga and Pilates are a wonderful addition to this.

Yourself

Seek

"Lord, grant that I might not so much

seek to be loved as to love".


 St. Francis of Assisi

Flow

Life is never all negative, just as it is not all positive. Life is about experience. And often our greatest experience comes from our hardest lessons. But this does not mean we should not enjoy the pleasures of this world. For they exist to ease our journey. Neither does it mean we should dwell in morbidity because all good things will end.

Instead let us recognize that life is a flow. It cannot stop, speed up, slow down or reverse. Things constantly move on. Because that is evolution. It is only by the leaving of one room that we can enter the next. And if we do not progress, we cannot grow. And if we do not grow we have no purpose.

Eat Organically

Eat as organically, and as minimally processed as possible.

"Processed" means how much was it "messed with" to get it into the state you're seeing it. For example, low-fat anything is processed. Cereal is one of the most processed "foods" that exists (the flaked and shaped kind), those processed oils that have been blended to become a butter alternative, meat from corn-fed cows, and raised in feed lots, most things in the middle aisles of most grocery stores — crackers, things in boxes, bags and cans.  


A good question to ask is, "Would your great grandmother have eaten this? Or recognized it?"

What Others Think Of Me

Abundance

"Not what we have,

but what we enjoy,
constitutes our abundance".

 Epicurus

Controlling Anxiety With Thoughts

Some people don’t think that they control their mood, their lives, their blood flow, their breathing, their heart rate, their body language—and that’s why they often get some outcomes that they’re not happy about.

It is the subconscious process occurring in your own head that will make your blood flow to your face or to your feet; it is your own thought process that will make your heart pump slower or faster; your own thoughts that will make your body stand straighter with excitement or slump lower with dread.



“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world.”

Buddha

Processed Oils

Remove processed oils from your diet.

If you squeeze an olive, you get oil out of it, but you might have noticed that if you squeeze corn, you don't get anything like that. That right there should make you nervous, never mind the damage that comes when trying to make oils from substances not naturally oily: vegetable (which vegetable, exactly, is in this oil?), corn, safflower, soy, rapeseed (which makes canola). To make them, they have to be heated far beyond their tolerance, creating a rancidity that you would notice if they weren't deodorized as well. These polyunsaturated oils contribute directly to creating plaques in the arteries. Saturated fat, on the other hand, does not, despite what you might have heard.
 A quick hint: good fats include saturated fats like coconut oil and butter don't go rancid (you'll notice you can leave them out on the counter), and here's a fascinating fact for you: lard is actually in the same classification as olive oil, as a monounsaturated fat.

Refuse

Choosing Our Thoughts

"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another".

William James

Instinct

"Feelings are much stronger than thoughts.We are all led by instinct,
and our intellect catches up later".


 Bono
 

Trans-Fat Dangers

A new study in the journal PLoS One suggests that the artery-clogging fat could be mucking up your mood too. Researchers found that, compared to people who ate the least trans fat, regular consumers of the stuff displayed more impatience, irritability and aggression. So much for the idea that junk food placates a bad mood.
Though more research is needed to demonstrate a cause and effect, avoid all trans fat — regardless of how grumpy it may or may not make you — because of its impact on the heart. Trans fat raises bad cholesterol, lowers good cholesterol, and increases the risk of heart disease. Even if the container says trans-fat-free, check the ingredients list. If it lists hydrogenated fat, stay away.

Rain

Faults

"Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own".



 Chinese proverb

Surround Yourself

Surround yourself with positive, nourishing, uplifting people whenever you can.
 Spend your time with spiritually evolved people who encourage your growth and applaud your successes.
 Wrap yourself in a support network of inspirational people with positive attitudes and energy.

Steps To Better Health- #1 (Marlene Merritt, DOM, LAc, ACN)

By far, this is the most important step to take, as our sugar and carb intake is the root cause of most major diseases we now see: cancer, heart disease, hypertension, Alzheimer's, stroke, anxiety, depression…the list goes on and on. Most people have used up their lifetime of "carb points" by overeating pancakes, french fries, bread and soda, and now healthy options like whole grains are problematic as well.
 The average American eats 150 pounds of sugar a year — it's this sugar that has done the most damage. Even if we halved the amount of sugar consumed to 75 pounds, that's still nearly 20 times the amount they ate in the year 1700 (which was 4 pounds a year).
I often tell people that if they knew what I knew about how damaging sugar was, it would scare the daylights out of them. Clinically, we find that this means approximately 60-80 grams of carbs per day, (not including green leafy vegetables),  or at whatever point that there aren't any sugar/carb cravings.

Echo

Courage

Courage doesn't always roar.

Sometimes courage is the quiet voice
at the end of the day saying,
"I will try again tomorrow.”

 Mary Anne Radmacher

Kindness

"Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.

 Kindness in giving creates love.”

Lao Tzu

Protein and Carb Intake

Eating the right balance of foods can improve your workout, whether you’re an athlete or just someone who enjoys exercising. But a lack of protein or too few carbohydrates can keep you from performing — and feeling — your best. In general, half of your daily calories should come from carbohydrates, like whole grains, fruit and legumes.
Though carbohydrates sometimes get a bad rap, they are important for supplying you with energy during workouts, and even during daily living. Meanwhile, protein helps repair and build muscle after exercise. Most Americans eat nearly twice as much protein as they need, but if you’ve been skipping out, aim for 10 to 35 percent of your calories to come from lean sources, like fish, beans, cottage cheese and skinless chicken.

True

Courage

"Courage is the power to let go of the familiar".


 Raymond Lindquist

Letting Go

“Some people think it’s holding that makes one strong.
Sometimes it’s letting go.”

Unknown

Pain Reduction Naturally

Choose magnesium-rich foods to help reduce pain. The mineral appears to possess powerful pain-relieving properties and may help alleviate several types of chronic pain, such as PMS, migraines, fibromyalgia and muscle pain. Some research suggests that migraine sufferers may be magnesium-deficient, and they may experience fewer and less severe headaches by taking a daily supplement.

 Too much magnesium can have a laxative effect, and supplements may not be safe for people with impaired kidney function.

Work

Forward

"The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men".


 George Eliot

Compassion

Ask no more of yourself than the best that you can do, and be satisfied with that. 

 Be compassionate towards yourself as well as others.

Binge Drinking

You might think it’s no big deal to tie one on now and then, but overdoing it on booze causes more than 80,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, and it’s the third-leading cause of preventable deaths.
 Contrary to popular belief, it’s not the college kids who are overdoing it the most. It’s the over-65 set that binge drinks more often than any other age group. What counts as binge drinking? For women, having more than four drinks in a row; for men, five or more drinks. Most binge drinkers are not alcohol-dependent — meaning, you don’t have to be an alcoholic to go overboard with alcohol. While an occasional drink or two with dinner is fine, women should have no more than one drink per day, while men should consume no more than two.

Comparing

Abundance

Not what we have, but what we enjoy,
constitutes our abundance.


 Epicurus

In The End

''In the end these things matter most:

How well did you love?
How fully did you love?
How deeply did you learn to let go? ''

 The Buddha

Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is the number two reason Americans see their doctor, second only to the common cold. To avoid being part of that statistic, head off back pain by building a strong core. Your core is the muscle system in your abdominals, lower back, hips and glutes that helps stabilize the body. These muscles help keep the back stable, properly aligned and resistant to injury.

This exercise, the elbow bridge plank, can help strengthen the abdominals, back and hips.

Start by lying face down on an exercise mat. Clasp your hands just under your chin, keeping your elbows and forearms underneath your chest. Using your toes and forearms, prop yourself up to form a bridge. Maintain a flat back — no arching — and keep your hips from sagging toward the ground. Hold this position, keeping your abdominal muscles tight, until you can no longer maintain good form. Start with 10 seconds and gradually increase your time. Try to work up to three minutes.

Blindness

Differences

Differences challenge assumptions.

Valuable

We all want to feel worthy. But maybe we don’t need to stand out from the crowd to do it. Maybe the greatest feeling of worth is knowing we’re all connected, and we all have the capacity to do something worthwhile for ourselves and the greater good.


“What we must decide is how we are valuable rather than how valuable we are.” 
 Edgar Z. Friedenberg

Omega-3

Keep your mind sharp with a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids — healthful fats found in fish like salmon, sardines and halibut. According to a study published in the journal Neurology, a diet that’s loaded with fish oil may guard the brain against premature aging and memory problems in middle age.
The research found that people with the highest levels of the omega-3s docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in their blood showed the least brain shrinkage, memory loss and cognitive decline — all risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Include fish in your menu at least twice a week.