February 2007

Did you see the scary Reuters article about Antioxidant Supplements that are linked to death risks?  Linked in the way you wouldn’t expect, as in increased rather than decreased.

Pretty unsettling when things that are supposed to be on your side are really playing for the other team. Read the story for yourself to learn what we should be doing and what we shouldn’t be taking.

Newsweek’s Jerry Adler put into writing all the thoughts swirling around my mind about the popular new book, “The Secret,” by Rhonda Byrne.  I had typed out half of a post for this blog and had basically said the same things he said in his first paragraph.  I hadn’t gotten much further than ….”the absolute LAST thing our society needs is encouragement to become MORE self-obsessed and self-absorbed…”  The Secret actually teaches the reader to avoid certain people - even looking at them could be bad for you. 

How could anyone get so wrapped up in themselves like that?  To the point of thinking of others only in terms of what they mean to yourself?  This person’s overweight….or struggling with money problems…or facing a troubled relationship…or has a character flaw - I’ll just mark them and avoid them.  Nice.

There are shreds of truth behind the books thinking - our thoughts are very, very important. But, come on, they don’t make the scale go up - calories do.

If you want to lose weight, you eat less/exercise more.  It all reminds me of what we hashed out in our last post - people flee from the simple and think there MUST be some hidden code holding all the answers….a Secret.

It’s all a marketing circus - and a successful one, at that.  The author - and others involved, will be rolling in cash while the readers are left rolling in something else.  It’s actually, in my opinion, a pretty dangerous book. 

None of us are God and we shouldn’t try to play God, even with ourselves.  There is no hidden, secret, mythical, mysterious little trick to getting what you want or curing what you have.  The book was, and is, a means of making money.  Plain and simple.

I hope you’ll read the Newsweek article in it’s entirety.

If anyone is a fan of the book’s, let me apologize for the toes I just stepped on.  Everyone, including me, has their own opinions and have to do what they think is best - and, personally, I’m on board with those who think this book is bad news. 

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.  ~Hans Hofmann

There’s a lot of beauty in simplicity.  Sure that’s kind of a tired saying, but like a lot of sayings, it’s only tired because it’s been good enough to stand the test of time. Standing the test of time makes one tired - generally, it also makes one right.

Take the art print above, for example.  I look at a lot of art on a daily basis.  My eyes have a lot more money than my hands do, so looking is usually about as far as it goes.  Today, alone, I must have browsed through 500 prints online.  The most beautiful one…the one that stood out in my mind at the end of the day….was the simply beautiful art print above (The Dog, Drawing on Paper by Pablo Picasso).

My uptown eyes saw hills, valleys, beaches, sunsets, vases, abstracts, horses, and architectural brilliance - but when all was said and done, the one thing they couldn’t stop talking about was a little black weiner dog drawn on a plain white paper. Usually, of all of my members, my eyes are the only art collectors, but this art print will be an exception. My whole body’s in agreement - we have to have this dog. Not only for its beauty, but also for the sermon it preaches about simplicity.  I’ll hang him somewhere my whole family can see as a reminder to simplify.

Sometimes I wonder if we aren’t all driving ourselves stark raving mad because we’re fighting so hard against what’s best for us - a simpler life. 

• Simpler meals - which would be physically healthier
• Simpler lifestyles - which would be financially healthier
• Simpler days - which would be mentally healthier
• Simpler evenings - which would be emotionally healthier

Just a thought - and a simple one, at that.

Credit: The wonderful framed art print is from Chef’s Corner - when you get to the website, enter The Dog, Drawing on Paper by Pablo Picasso in the search box.  

I love, absolutely love, people who think outside of the confining, boring, indulgent little box. I love to see them acknowledge the box for the cage that it is and emancipate themselves.  From what I’ve read, seen, and experienced - there’s always some defining moment when the bars suddenly become too much.  A moment when they look around the cage and think, “This is okay,” only to look outside of the cage and say, “…but that rocks!”

The story of Tyra Banks is just such a story.  She’s a household name, now, in every sense of the word. I mean, who doesn’t know this beautiful lady’s name, face, and figure?!  She’s one of the most successful models in history and she has gone on to have, not just one, but two wildly popular television shows. She was named as one of the world’s 100 most influential people by TIME magazine in 2006.

When she first started modeling, she was getting booked for runway shows all over the country.  She was a flawless, long legged fresh faced all American girl that the designers loved.  However, the fashion industry being what it was (and is, to an extent), perfect Tyra all of a sudden wasn’t perfect enough.  The industry told Tyra’s manager - who happened to be her loving, protective, and clever as a fox mother that Tyra needed to lose 10 pounds.  She was only 123 lbs at the time!  Her mother immediately pictured a lot of the girls she’d seen at the fashion shows, girls who you could literally play the game of count the vertebrae on. 

When she told Tyra the news, she asked her mother what they were going to do.  Her answer?  Order some pizza. (Love that!)  Then, they’d come up with their own great solution - rather than settling for someone else’s bad solution. (Love that even more!)

The solution they came up with proved to be one of the most brilliant, successful solutions since Hershey’s took a crack at chocolate.  They decided that rather than invite Tyra’s curves to leave, they’d find someone to appreciate them.  The rest is history.  Literally.  They contacted Victoria’s Secret and Sports Illustrated (Swimsuit) and each welcomed Tyra with open lenses.  Tyra Banks made history by becomming the first black girl to make the cover of the SI Issue (Twice, no less) and she has sold more bras and panties than all the other VS models.

I don’t know where the girls with the protruding backbones are now, but the girl who had backbone is most definitely accounted for……. 

“Our ideas, like orange-plants, spread out in proportion to the size of the box which imprisons the roots.” ~  Edward Bulwer Lytton

I typed in Curing Procrastination as the post title before changing it to Managing Procrastination.  As someone who suffers from the affliction, I know all too well looking for the miracle cure is asking a little too much.

Are there any other procrastinators out there?  If so, I may have a little help for us.  In a recent issue of Psychology Today, an article dealt with us and our lot in life.  The article threw the word scatterbrains at me, but I rearranged the letters until they spelled free spirits and threw it back at them.  We’re fully functioning (on our schedule), mature (when we choose to be), responsible (when the word fits us…sometimes it’s just a little too tight), and laid back (we’ve got that one dead to rights) people.

The experts point out that we’re often impulsive and are usually big on daydreaming, too.  They sum up our approach to life with Scarlett’s favorite line, “I’ll think about that tomorrow.”

However, for our own peace of mind, we would like to nail this whole git ‘er done then forget it approach that our more highly strung counterparts live by.  It’d bring more organization and discipline to our lives…and best of all, the high wires wouldn’t be breathing down our necks the whole time.  Don’t like them there, don’t like them there at all.

The article (written by one of them, no doubt) gave the following advice for - in their words - Getting It Together:

1. Get to the real problem.  We need to figure out why we drag our feet.  For me, I think I know where it stems from.  I’m an only child - and when I was a little girl, I never had any deadlines, routines, or strict discipline.  To make the whole Spoiled Only Child even worse, I wasn’t supposed to even live.  When my mom was told she was pregnant, the doctor told her that carrying me would be very dangerous for her because of her health - they wanted to finish me off just as I was getting started! But my mom had always dreamed of having a little girl, and she somehow knew I was one of those - and she defiantly said she’d keep her baby.  The doctors told her that I probably wouldn’t even make it.  But her money was on both of us.  She was right - and I think she thought “miracle” every time she looked at a certain little spoiled girl.  It was an arrangement that worked for both of us.
2. Snap out of the present.  “Think about how you will feel tomorrow if you skip out on an obligation today.  Putting yourself at a distance from your current perspective can tune you into future regrets and get you moving now.”   This one actually works wonders.  I call it into play when there’s something particularly unattractive in front of me.
3. Be responsible for 3 minutes.  The author suggests telling yourself that you will work on a task for three minutes.  Then, when the time is up, you get to decide if you want to continue or not.  The upside is that the momentum usually carries you through and you finish up.
4. Set up a penalty system.  (This one bites.)  Penalizing yourself or denying yourself something you want (like a Starbuck’s trip) each time you procrastinate, they say, will help keep you honest.  Been there, tried that - ended up at Starbuck’s muttering “Screw that…” in the parking lot. 

The penalty system’s out of the question for me, but the other 3 might just be something I can live with.  I’ll think more about it tomorrow.  After all, tomorrow is another day.

“Be open to learning new lessons even if they contradict the lessons you learned yesterday.”  ~Ellen Degeneres

Did you know that an estimated 7 percent of the U.S. population has diabetes?  Sadly, there’s no cure for this particularly ugly disease - but doctors teach and preach that through diet and insulin one can control their diabetes. Better to control it than for it to control you, right?

Experts agree that the following treats help a diabetic and should be included in their daily diet.

1. TEA.  Polyphenols - which are chemicals found in black, green, and oolong teas - boost insulin activity.
2. CINNAMON.  Less than half a teaspoon daily increases sugar metabolism in fat cells.
3. BUCKWHEAT.  Contains chemical compounds that reduce blood sugar levels.
4. CHERRIES.  Contain chemicals called antocyanins that increase insulin production.
5. GUAVA.  Extracts from apple guavas lower blood-sugar levels.
6. COCOA.  Decreases insulin resistance.

If any of you have diabetes, start taking it as seriously as you would if it were your spouse or child with the disease.  Make yourself walk the same line you’d insist they walked if they had the disease.  Diabetes is serious stuff and should be given all the respect it deserves!

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” - Bible

“Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.” - Rabindranath Tagore

“That’s the thing about faith. If you don’t have it you can’t understand it. And if you do, no explanation is necessary.” - Major Kira Nerys

“It is good to dream, but it is better to dream and work. Faith is mighty, but action with faith is mightier. Desiring is helpful, but work and desire are invincible.” - Thomas Robert Gaines

“Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.” - Elton Trueblood

“Faith… Must be enforced by reason…When faith becomes blind it dies.” - Mahatma Gandhi

According to a study that’ll appear in Monday’s issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, an afternoon nap will do your heart a world of good.

In the largest study ever on the health benefits of napping, researchers tracked 23,681 healthy Greek adults for an average of about six years. Those who napped for about half an hour at least three times weekly had a 37 percent lower risk of dying from heart attacks or other heart problems than those who did not nap.

The researchers believe that the benefits to the heart stems from a reduction of stress. 

Sometimes when stress has you in a corner, the only way out is down!  As in on the couch, in a recliner, on the bed, on the kitchen floor (been there, done that).  When we think we’re too busy for a nap?  That’s when we need one the most.

We all know that stress puts a beating on our heart - it’s like a laced up, well-trained boxer and our heart is its punching bag.  Anytime we can provide it with the means to get out of arm’s reach of stress, we should do so.  If it likes a couple of afternoon naps a week, slow be it!