17 Healthy Choices: 1 Simple Change

Does getting healthy seem overwhelming? Do you think you’re going to have to give up everything you love? Change your entire life?

It doesn’t have to be that way! Instead of worrying about changing your lifestyle completely, pick one thing to change and just make one simple change every month or two. In a year you’ll have made six or twelve … TWELVE healthy changes.

It’s not all about food and exercise either. Good health begins with building a satisfying life. Here are some ideas:

1. If you add in a salad a day, it will be a big deal to your heart, eyes, skin, immune system, basically everything. Make it a healthy, veggie and nut rich salad, topped with a dressing made from healthy oils and spices and you have added powerful prevention to your life!
2. You can add in meditation. Just five minutes of meditation a day can bring a reduction in stress!
3. Work on improving your relationships through discussion and reading. There are a lot of books available on how to build healthy relationships. Pick one to read and implement some of the strategies. Not enough? Link up with a great counselor. It often helps to have a neutral party to support you while you navigate through the issues.
4. Begin a search for a spiritual home. Studies show over and over that people with a fulfilling spiritual life are healthier.
5. Step out and meet new people. There are several opportunities from church groups, meetup.com, support groups and special interest groups.
6. Volunteer to serve others and you’ll have the opportunity to build new friendships.
7. Try exercising three times a week. Start slow and build up. Often people start out too fast and burn out really quickly. Try for three times of gentle exercise while you build the habit and add in sessions and/or intensity as you get stronger.
8. Take a class, learn a language, join a book club, explore your community!
9. Add in more fruits and vegetables.
10. Take a healthy living class. Check your local library events.
11. Switch a trip to the vending machine for raw walnuts and a mini box of raisins … Just one simple change will add up to better health in no time!
12. Drink a bottle of water in place of one of the sodas or cups of coffee you drink. After that’s easy, replace another.
13. Visit stores with a healthy mission and spend time looking at the food. What’s different? Read the labels and learn about healthy options.
14. Buy grass fed, grass finished beef or pastured, non-GMO fed chicken. Taste the difference.
15. Take an exercise class or an aquatic exercise class. Most centers have a try-before-you-buy option. Often you can pay for a day at a time. Give it a try!
16. Flood your body with 30 fruits and veggies by ordering and taking Juice Plus+. As Ben Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” (And from the number of people who suffered from a very nasty flu this winter, I’m thankful for that ounce of prevention!) You can order it on my website. I recommend starting with the basic Garden and Orchard Blends. Cost runs approximately $44/month.
17. Sign up for a SoulCollage® class where you will learn how to connect with your inner wisdom through the use of book and magazine images, scissors and glue. For more information visit SoulCollage

Make one simple change every month or two and by the end of a year you’ll feel better, look better and will have set yourself up for a higher quality of life long term. You can choose to feel energetic, healthy and happy. Following the one simple change formula will get you there.

Who Do Your Taste Buds Belong To?

First of all, sugar just won’t stay off my radar this year. No matter where I turn I see articles about it. I was contracted to teach two classes about it. I was asked to facilitate a 10-Day Sugar Detox group. Today I received an email with the heading, ‘The 7 Deadly Truths of Sugar’ and another a few weeks ago that said, “Sugar is the New Nicotine!” Last, but certainly not least, I recently had a run-in with sugar disrupting my healthy eating plan. (I’m back on track, staying prepared, and have no cravings at all!)

So, exactly who do your taste buds belong to? Food companies manipulate their food using sugar, salt, and fat to increase the likelihood that you will consume more. Their goal, much like the tobacco companies years ago, is to make their products more attractive and more addictive so that you’ll consume greater quantities. This makes the shareholders happy and provides hefty bonuses to management. Research shows that sugar affects our dopamine receptors and that people addicted to sugar require ever greater amounts to reach the same level of satisfaction … and so we keep eating!

For more on how we are all victims of food giants out of control, read the book, Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, by Michael Moss, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. It’s a real eye-opener and I’ve never looked packaged food the same since.

Why is taste bud manipulation such a bad thing? All it takes is a look at the soaring costs of health care (or sick care) in our country to know that things aren’t working well. Most Americans are happy to take a pill, or five or eight pills to ‘solve’ the symptoms they’re experiencing and that makes the pharmaceutical companies happy! Doctors aren’t taught nutrition and most won’t advise something they don’t understand, or they take their cue from the USDA which is run by former food giant executives. Even if you bring in research that shows it to be true most doctors aren’t interested in hearing about it. Don’t believe me? Tell your doctor that you’re going to change your lifestyle instead of taking a statin for high cholesterol or high triglycerides.

What if I told you that you could feel fabulous without any prescription medications? Would you believe me? It’s true for many people. What if I told you that you could most likely reverse heart disease with diet and exercise, or forget you ever had asthma? Maybe the arthritis in your hands prevents you from doing something you love … You can lessen, and often get rid of the pain when you change your diet.

So, what is deadly about sugar? What are some of the conditions that consumption of sugar leads to and/or exacerbates?

• High Cholesterol
• High Triglycerides
• Obesity
• Heart Disease
• Arthritis
• Diabetes (Type 2)
• Inflammation
• Aging Skin
• Asthma
• Immune System Suppression leaving your body less
  capable of warding off infection.
• Fatty Liver Disease
• Gout
• Hypoglycemia (Low Blood Sugar)
• Hypertension
• Insulin Resistance
• Slowed Metabolism

By taking sugar out of our diets long enough to reset our system, then adding back in healthy sweet options, we can take back control of how we feel and how we age. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but as we hit our 50’s and 60’s it really comes home to us: “It’s not the length of a life, it’s the quality of that life.” In other words, I’m not enthralled by living to 100 unless I feel good and am able to enjoy myself.

Shameless plug
Here’s the good news! You can reset your metabolism and get your blood sugar stabilized in just a few days! One of my group members said, “I am so happy now that my focus isn’t always centered on food!” and another, “They had donuts at work, I had to walk by them all day, and I never even wanted one!” It feels almost magical!

Each person who started on this journey was convinced that they would be suffering and unable to do without their soda or coffee or sugar. Even on the first day they were shocked … It’s crazy how easy it is! When you are putting the best nutrition into your body, in a well-planned way, you quit craving. Magical!

A new group is starting the 10-Day Sugar Detox on Monday, February 23rd with a preparation call on Saturday the 21^st. The call is recorded so if you can’t make one of the calls, you can still benefit from the group’s support! We also have a secret, totally private Facebook group where you can share ideas and ask for support. Click here to register  and use the Promo Code SOCIAL for a $5 discount making the price only $24.95 to kick sugar to the curb! Another benefit is that should you fall off the wagon, you will know how easy it is to climb back on!

My group detox uses the book by Dr. Mark Hyman, The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox, and you can use the same book and do the detox on your own. It’s easier to succeed when there’s an experienced Health Coach there to offer you guidance and options, and with group support; That’s why I offer it, but please consider committing to the detox with or without the group. There are so many good reasons to detox from sugar!

I know it’s hard to imagine when someone tells you they don’t crave much of anything anymore, you don’t believe that they like sweets and junk food as much as you do and that they must have super willpower and you don’t and that there’s no way you’d ever be able to face a day without a candy bar or bag of Cheetos, but every person who’s done this detox felt exactly the same way! They loved their coffee or Cheetos or Milky Way just as much as you love your junk. They just made a choice to change their future … to actually LIVE rather than exist at the whim of Hershey’s, Mars or Blue Bunny.

I would love for you to join us in the upcoming group, but please make the commitment to yourself and take back control. You will feel soooooo good!

Love & Light,
NancyO

Is Gardening in Your Future?

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