June 2007

Have you had your boysenberries today?  No?

How about your black currants? Heck no?

If you’re like most people you probably aren’t too familiar with these colorful berries.  However, you might want to make the introductions sooner rather than later.  If, that is, you’re into fighting the signs of aging, protecting your body, and guarding against mental decline. A study finds that adding boysenberries and black currants to your diet can give you an anti-aging boost that can protect all parts of your body and even postpone the development of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Berries such as these, as well as other colorful fruits and vegetables are chock full of polyphenols, a type of antioxidant that buffers against disease by protecting the body’s cells from natural stresses of aging. These amazing chemicals keep your cells and, in turn you, vibrant and active.  Polyphenols are also found in green tea, olive oil, dark chocolate and pomegranates.

One author of the study puts it simply: Eat your colors.

Since polyphenols are largely responsible for giving plants their colorful hues, choosing a variety of food colors means you’re treating your body to a healthy dose of antioxidants. Include blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, purple grape juice, andpomegranates on your plate. When your plate resembles a rainbow, you’ll know you’re doing something right. 

A colorful diet such as this is also a heart-healthy diet, according to James Joseph, a neuroscientist and director of the Neuroscience Lab at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. Antioxidants protect arteries by keeping them supple and strong. Healthy arteries not only mean a healthy cardiovascular system but healthy gray matter as well. “What’s good for your heart is also good for your brain.”

James Joseph believes that eating fresh berries provides us with the most benefits. Important compounds can easily be lost in processing berries.

Still, adding color to your diet isn’t the only change we need to make if we’re serious about heart and brain health.  

Our entire lifestyle has to support this goal: 

• We have to get serious about our diet - cut out what we know is bad for us and replace the baddies with what we know is good for us.  I made a small step, yesterday, at my grocery store.  I had a bag of chips and dip in the cart, but right before checking out, I put them back where I had gotten them and headed to the produce aisle.  I got a bag of baby carrots and some handsome celery (I kept reminding myself how handsome it was so I’d forget my Ruffles…).  Then I went to the Salad Dressing Aisle and got a packet of Hidden Valley Dressing mix.  The directions say to mix it with Sour Cream but I went with Fat Free Yogurt instead.  The taste was just as good.
• We have to include physical activity and exercise in our daily routines. We all make the tired excuse, “But I don’t have time…”  - We need to condition ourselves to MAKE the time, not the excuse.  We can park further away at the store, take the long route when shopping, take evening walks while catching up on the day with our family, etc.  I like to sneak my yoga in when I know I’m going to be in one place, anyway.  Such as when I’m in the kitchen cooking or watching Food Network or a ballgame.
• As much as our body needs a daily workout, our minds need to be stimulated and challenged just as badly.  Whether it’s crossword puzzles, reading from the “deeper” end of the bookshelf, learning something new, or taking an online course - we should all challenge ourselves daily.

Physical exercise actually affects our brains in a way that’s similar to polyphenols. Researchers from the McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida find that rats with exercise wheels in their cages show fewer signs of aging in their brains than their sedentary peers, and the same conclusions have been drawn by comparing elderly humans who exercise with those who do not.

Start taking the steps you KNOW you need to take, Make the changes you KNOW you need to make.  Even the smallest steps count!

“Settlin’”

by Sugarland

Fifteen minutes left to throw me together
For mister right now, not mister forever
Don’t know why I even try when I know how it ends
Looking like another “maybe we could be friends”
I’ve been leaving it up to fate
It’s my life so it’s mine to make

I ain’t settling for just getting by
I’ve had enough so so for the rest of my life
Tired of shooting too low, so raise the bar high
Just enough ain’t enough this time
I ain’t settling for anything less than everything, yeah

With some good red wine and my brand new shoes
Gonna dance a blue streak around my living room
Take a chance on love and try how it feels
With my heart wide open now you know I will
Find what it means to be the girl
Who changed her mind and changed her world….

Great lyrics, right?  Amazing lyrics!  The kind of lyrics that make you want to fight hell with a water gun.The song preached is upbeat sermon from the radio speakers while my husband and I took a ride last night.  He was making a delivery for his offline company.  It was bags of something or another (mortar, maybe) for a home  Domestic Castle that’s being built created.  Oh, Mary, gentle Mother of God….this place was unbelievable.

Okay, imagine the most amazing scenery in the world - beautiful hills and trees of every kind as far as the eyes can see.  The couple even has a small lake on their property - with a gazebo overlooking it, of course.  (The gazebo’s bigger than some houses I’ve seen.)  A brick walkway surrounds the large house Domestic Castle, with flower beds with breathtaking flowers and ferns.  Even the ferns seemed bigger than some houses.  Cats could get lost in these ferns and not be seen for days.

Some people are overtaken by a green eyed monster when they see someone else with a large piece of life’s pie. This place, in particular, would have destroyed a jealous-type.  There’d have been nothing of them to even take to the er - they’d just crumble amongst the monstrous ferns.

I get excited, though. It reminds you how amazing life’s pie can be! For one thing, the lady is super nice, so I’m thrilled for her.  Besides, she’s a pet lover, so I’m especially happy for her lot in life.  She has a gorgeous dog and several beautiful cats to share in the wealth.  For another thing, when you see something like this, it makes you realize exactly where hard work and dedication can carry you.

On the drive back home, it occurred to me.  This is exactly the sort of place that all of our young people should see. Irregardless of their age(s), they should be shown something this magnificent.  I wished that our daughters had been with us.  I would have told them to create a mental image of this amazing place and to keep the image with them always.  The image could serve as a prod when they began to “settle” in life.  When they were tempted to slide the bar a little bit down rather than leave it high.  Sometimes stretching isn’t so fun, and we want the bar to come to us rather than stretching ourselves to meet it.  That might be comfortable for the moment, but it won’t lead to a comfortable life.

I’d have asked them if they’d want to live life with this view one day.  After the “Duh’s,” I would have asked them, “What do you think it would take to get here?”

• Hard work.  That’s probably a given, but it’s worth repeating.  If you want to have the sort of success in life that would allow you to create your own Heaven on earth - you’d better be willing to work hard.  Working hard means doing, sometimes, unpleasant things when you’d rather be doing something else.  It means making sure your boss knows that you’ll not only work extra hours when called upon, but you’ll do it willingly and happily.  It means that, when she calls you to come in at the last minute, you make her feel like she just did you a favor not a disservice.  It means getting out of your comfort zone and making things happen - not waiting for them to happen.
• Smart Work.  Hard work is fine and good - and oh so commendable.  But if it’s dumb work - it’ll still be dumb work, no matter how hard you work at it.  “There’s no such thing as dumb work!,”  some may yell.  (Oh, yeah, I see the e-mails coming.)  But, there is, most definitely, such a thing!  Think about it like this:  If Jeffery B. works at the Video Vault for $6.00 an hour, without benefits - when Jeffrey B. could be working someplace else for $12.00 an hour, with benefits…  Jeff’s working dumb, not smart.  And you know, as well as I do, that there are people who’d rather stay at a lower paying job than to make the effort to get a better one.  Whether it’s fear of rejection, fear of an interview, fear of change, or fear of having to lose more of their free time - you can see a Jeff just about everywhere you look.  Except, of course, in a magnificent new house overlooking it’s own lake.  With ferns that weigh more than the Olsen twins.   There won’t be any Jeff’s there.

Maybe we should all drive our kids (and ourselves, for that matter) through the swankiest neighborhoods in town.  If they’re males, a visit to a car lot might make an even bigger impression.  But, make no mistake about it, an impression will be made.

I know as well as anyone that material things aren’t what’s most important in life.  Good health, a happy family, lots of laughter, pets you love, and a Starbucks nearby - that’s true wealth.  All I’m saying is, if you can have all of that AND the ferns, you’d be a fool not to plan your work and then work your plan.  Like the song says, it’s all about settling or not settling.

I ain’t settling for just getting by
I’ve had enough so so for the rest of my life
Tired of shooting too low, so raise the bar high
Just enough ain’t enough this time
I ain’t settling for anything less than everything……

You sing it, girl!

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” ~ Dr. Seuss

If I loved this quote any more I’d have to tattoo it on my arm.

 fuel noun, verb

1. combustible matter used to maintain fire, as coal, wood, oil, or gas, in order to create heat or power.

2. something that gives nourishment.

3. an energy source for engines, power plants, or reactors.

4. something that sustains or encourages; stimulant

I’ve read a lot this month.  Some months are great for reading and others, not so much.  This has been an awesome one - every magazine, newspaper and book I’ve touched held my attention and refused to give it back.   From the fascinating book “Change Works with CLEAR” to the May/June issue of Psychology Today, authors the world over have been pouring information, opinions, and mental challenges into my head. Love that!

Information is fuel for the mind, and since I have no interest in running on empty, I keep reading.

There are lots of articles, and even books, written from the standpoint of making the reader more interesting [How to Hold Your Own in a Conversation, What to Say When You Don't Know What to Say, How to Choose a Topic to Write About, etc.] I know that oversimplifying is one of my most irritating tendencies, but the truth of the matter is that I think the best way to be interesting is to simply be interested.

• Interested in the world around you, not just the person you see in the mirror.
• Interested in what others are doing to make this world a better place to live.
• Interested in other people’s needs, so you can try to become a part of the solution.
• Interested in learning something new every single day.
• Interested in being smarter on Friday than you were on Monday.
• Interested in how you can make yourself a better person.

We are all capable of so much more than we realize.  But we get comfortable with our knowledge.  We lie down on the bed of the books we’ve already read, we rest our head on the education we’ve gotten, and we pull the covers of our accomplishments over our head. 

The paragraph you just read?  It’s the slippery slope to stupid. 

And stalled.

And stagnant.

If you make one decision today, make it a great one.  Decide that you want more for yourself than you’ve been claiming.  When you read, you swing open the windows of the world and breath in knowledge and challenges.  Your world instantly becomes bigger, brighter, bolder, and more beautiful. 

Adopt the mindset of “A day spent without learning something is a day wasted.”  Then vow to never waste another day of your life.  Waste not….want not.

Have a great weekend - and read something that’ll touch the rest of your life.