Like a road sign or a compass, the reason why we do something is much more important than how we do it. How is the procedure. It is the mechanics of doing all the steps to get to our goal. Why is what lets us reach our goals. It gives us our starting point and helps us to define our path. It tells us where we want to be at the end of the journey. It reminds us what we were doing if we wander off our path. It allows us to adapt, improvise and overcome when obstacles get in our way. It helps us to keep going when we have lost all hope of ever getting to where we want to be.

So, the next time you are stressing out about planning and other miniscule details, remember the why. The how is important, but the why is the reason we are doing it. Sit back for a minute and remember why and then go forward, because life is about the journey and the why not the destination.

Some related articles:

Asking ‘why’ instead of ‘how’ helps consumers achieve goals of saving money or losing weight

Change Your Life Your Way

Research, The Anchor Of Any Plan

Technorati Tags: holistic wellness, mind health, weight loss, Why

My last post talked about changing your life using some research , some planning and some determination. This post is just a list of healthy foods that you can use to move toward that goal of holistic wellness and some reasons why you might want to choose them.

Whole Grains

• Whole wheat bread, wheat bran cereals, and whole wheat pasta contain high levels of insoluble fiber for gastrointestinal health.
• Oatmeal is rich in soluble fiber to help lower cholesterol levels.

Nuts

• High in monounsaturated fat to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

Tomatoes – fresh, canned, juice or sauce

• Lycopene is an antioxidant found in tomatoes that may decrease the risk of cancers — particularly prostate cancer and, more recently, breast cancer.
• Lycopene is most able to be used by your body when it has been cooked.

Salmon and Tuna – fresh or canned

• Rich in omega-3 fatty acids that may decrease the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Olive Oil

• Rich in monounsaturated fats to help maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

Green Leafy Vegetables – fresh or frozen (spinach, kale, chard, green leafy lettuce)

• Contain flavonoids to help prevent memory loss.
• Rich in carotenoids which help to ward off macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness.
• Eat these greens with avocado to help your body absorb these nutrients better.

Garlic

• Can help decrease cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and perhaps prevent cancer.
• Acts as an antibiotic.

Dried Beans and Peas – dry, canned or frozen

• Loaded with soluble fiber to lower cholesterol, and help maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

Broccoli — fresh or frozen

• May decrease the risk of breast cancer.
• Extremely rich in antioxidants to help protect body cells from disease and aging.
• Excellent source of vitamin C, an antioxidant that helps maintain a strong immune system and may reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.
• Good source of potassium, an important mineral for healthy blood pressure.
• Steam your broccoli lightly to help your body absorb these nutrients

Fruits of various colors – fresh or frozen

• Loaded with vitamin C, an antioxidant that may reduce the risk of heart disease.
• Loaded with soluble fiber to lower cholesterol, and help maintain healthy blood sugar levels.
• Extremely rich in antioxidants to help protect body cells from disease and aging. Each color is indicative of the different kinds of antioxidants.
• Good source of potassium, an important mineral for healthy blood pressure.
• Eat the whole fruit not just the juice. The solid part of the fruit has fiber that helps regulate your blood sugar and many of the nutrients are in the pulp.

Hopefully this will give you some starting information for your research toward better health.

Be well.

Related Posts:

http://www.northof50.us/holistic-wellness/change-your-life-your-way

http://www.northof50.us/health-and-wellness/something-fishy-in-our-diet

http://www.northof50.us/holistic-wellness/truth-about-juice

Technorati Tags: health and wellness, holistic wellness, mind health, nutrition

There are many things in life that can intrude on your peace of mind and stress you out. Any stress over time can pile up and adversely affect your health and wellness. Somethings are major ,some are minor, some are just  annoying and some are life altering. A minor but very annoying aspect of life is junk mail.The average American adult receives about 41 pounds of junk mail a year, even though, as Newsweek reports, polls show that 89 percent of us prefer not to receive direct-marketing mail; 44 percent of it is never opened. Opposition from the US Postal Service and the Direct Marketing Association has so far helped defeat passage of any Do Not Mail legislative relief in 19 states.

Low-cost initiatives like 41 Pounds.org ($41 for five years includes a $15 eco-cause donation) and StopTheJunkMail.com ($20 a year) are coming to citizens’ rescue with services that solve 80 to 95 percent of the problem for us. Do-it-yourself types can also make it happen using how-to tips courtesy of The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse at PrivacyRights.org/fs/fs4-junk.htm, with an assist from OptOutPrescreen.com and CatalogChoice.org.

Nationwide annual benefits of getting out from under junk mail include: preventing production of greenhouse gases equal to the emissions of 9 million cars; destruction of the 100 million trees and use of 28 million gallons of freshwater it takes to produce 4 million tons of junk mail; $550 million in transportation costs; paper waste comprising 40 percent of the landfill load; and $320 million in local taxes spent on junk mail disposal. Not to mention the estimated 350 hours each household spends sorting and shredding it to protect against identity theft and fraud.

For more tips, visit BigGreenPurse.com and search”control catalog overload.”

Reprinted from    Natural Awakenings October 2009

Another inventive way to deal with junk mail especially in winter is to turn it into a low cost heat source. A pile of junk mail in your home is not a pretty sight. If you live far away from a recycling center or just want to get rid of all your junk mail quickly, a junk mail fire log may be the answer to your junk mail problem. Follow these tips to learn how to make one and use it as an alternative heat source.

Reprinted from http://www.ehow.com/how_4454260_make-junk-mail-fire-log.html

One last note, if you are shredding your mail and sensitive material and you shred it very fine, then you can take those shreddings and use them as mulch for your plants. They will help your plants retain moisture, provide some nutrients when they (shreddings) rot and won’t increase our landfill load unnecessarily. (Just make sure that the shred is fine enough that it can not be reassembled.

Technorati Tags: health and wellness, holistic wellness, men over 50, mind health, women over 50

More and more, scientists are finding out new things about the brain and the mind. Holistically, we have always known that the body and the brain, as a part of the body, carry around the spirit and support it. The mind is that process that allows the spirit to interact with the world as a whole. It seems fairly obvious, but only recently has science caught up with this way of thinking. We can see this in all aspects of our life and is most exemplified when something goes wrong with our body.

The brain was thought of as a lump of material that attained a certain size and stopped reproducing itself, could not repair itself and after a certain age it was a race to see which would go first - your brain or you would die. We also only use 10% of the brain. And of course, scientists believed once the brain died, so did the mind. Recent studies are starting to blow some of these time honored theories right out of the water.

Today, brain imaging during various activities, both mental and physical, are showing that we use a much larger portion of our brain than previously was thought. We now can see that all sections of the brain light up corresponding to the tested activity. Also, the brain does not stop growing or reproducing new cells as previously thought. Each time you begin a new activity sections of the brain are shown to grow and have more related activity. This has been shown for may activities, such as, juggling, learning a new language, playing a new game, physical exercise and a host of other things that require learning something new.

It was also thought that a damaged brain could not repair itself. What has now been found is that the brain can rewire itself, so to speak, allowing the person to perform an action, they had previously lost with another portion of the brain. Scientists have found the brain can actually re-route itself. And the brain does not necessarily have to die just because we get to old age. Studies, again, are showing that exercise, good diet and good friends and family can help keep a brain sharp until the day you die.

All this proves that you are the one that has the largest control over how your brain functions and how fulfilling your life is. Granted there are some diseases that can prove too debilitating, but even then a healthy lifestyle can minimize the effects of those diseases. So get up, get out and enjoy life.

Be well.

Related posts:

http://www.northof50.us/holistic-wellness/keeping-your-mind

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_90855.html

http://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/news/20091016/stay-healthy-in-retirmenet-with-work?src=RSS_PUBLIC

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090914172524.htm

Technorati Tags: brain health, holistic wellness, men over 50, mind health, women over 50