Never too late to get started..

I have decided that making myself be more attentive to my blog would be a good thing. Every day I am inundated with great information, and although the radio show serves as a spring board for information, I think we need any and all information to have the healthiest life possible.

The new is playing an important role these days in supplying information, but as with many Madison avenue sources of advertising, we, the public are at the mercy of the people paying or backing the discussed or advertised information. I have always been an advocate of second and third opinions for medical health problems, and at the same time, I am always someone who believes in doing your homework and not relying solely on one information source.

Especially, when you are trying to establish a new healthy way of living, make sure to always do your homework, ask questions, and pursue a new way of thinking. Many times we will find out that a healthy way of living may be completely different, and in your mind may not make sense, but the bottom line, we are just accustomed to doing it in an unhealthy way.

The last thing to remember is no matter how bad you have been to yourself, and how unhealthy you may have eaten, it is NEVER too late to start treating yourself with respect, and in a healthy way.

We all need to get a reality check!

I am not sure if thinking this way is correct, but it seems I always come back to this way of thinking. When people decide to make changes, they get mildly motivated, and then motivation naturally slows down. Their mentality seems to be that of quickness, or fast results, with minimal effort, but with expectations as big as mountains. I am not sure if it is that Madison avenue, through print and television that has made us a culture of people that know and expect and demand fast results, or there must be a problem with the procedure mentality Lord knows it could not be them, it must be the drug, supplement, eating protocol or the advice was most likely wrong too.

What I do know, and the reason I get so frustrated is because most of us are responsible for our unhealthy and unhappy lives, and yet we push the blame onto whatever or whoever is in the line of fire, even using our childhoods as a fall back victim. The truth is, if you eat badly, have terrible vices, do not handle your stress, make bad relationship, financial and emotional choices, then you and only you are responsible for the actions. The other thing is these bad conditions and unhealthy lifestyles do not happen overnight, so stop expecting or demanding that they be fixed overnight. Last but not least, take responsibility and admit to yourself that changes may have to be permanant life changes, and get over it, suck it up, and take back your health. By taking it back, you will appreciate it and chances are, stick to it.

Change, not easily motivated

Although most of us should know in our mind and our hearts when it is time to make changes in our lives, I mean healthy changes. But in reality, it seems that we have to be told to do so before we are actually motivated or before will openly admit that we are aware that it is time.

Awareness and acceptance is something that is motivated by many things. It can be brought to the priority position because the state of health is changing quickly or negatively, or because we are noticing that simple tasks are getting harder and harder to do, or because clothing no longer is comfortable to wear.

I think that when the Doctor tells you that things are in a bad state, is usually a deciding factor for us to start to change. I guess I will rephrase that. It is the first step to saying OK, I get it, but far from the steps that add up to change. Most of us, when approached or lectured by our Physician, will ask, almost 100% of the time, what do you have that can fix this, or isn't there a prescription that will make it go away? We rarely ask what can I do to get to the cause of this health situation, what am I doing now that may have caused this, or is there a natural way to get to the cause? I do not know why we do not choose this verbiage, or evenly possibly think of this, but many of us do not.

I truly, in my heart feel that if we all were instantly in a mode that pushed us to first think cause, second think about the symptoms and third ask about or use the pharmaceutical band aid cover up fix, we would instantly as a nation become so healthy it would make our heads spin!

Little by little and slowly but surely...

So I have decided to release the blog and start letting people become familiar with it. My other blog got pretty large, so I decided to start over and slowly bring it to the readers. I am truly amazed that so many people are finally starting to become health oriented,  but I think it is not for the reason I would like. My dream is that everyone will just decide that bad habits are the driving force that leads us to an unhealthy lifestyle, but what I think is happening is many people are deciding to change due to bad over all health, and because of their failing health at a young age, and they are maybe fed up!

I guess I can not be too picky, because they are still coming onboard, and still are making changes. My hopes would be that more of us would make lifestyle changes before it is becaomes a life and death scenario.

Location does not always make a difference.

I am noticing that because my radio show streams nationwide, and because I receive e mails from different parts of the country, I am starting to see a distinct health pattern.The interesting thing is that no matter where the e- mails come from, or who is sending them, and with  all of the differences in the geographic part of the country, age, sex, financial status, or even career, I amazed to see that the questions are always the same.

The questions that come in to me always deal with the same major complaints including problems with energy, digestion, elimination, hormones, immune system, hair, skin , mails, eyes, bones, joints and even bad breath and body odor, and of course weight loss, diabetes, blood pressure and the heart. The conclusion I have come to is we, as Americans have the same basic diet and lifestyle all over the country, and even with all of the information available, we still do not do our bodies right. And although we want to feel better and look better and have a better quality of life, the work involved is maybe too much for us to stick with, or for some, to even attempt change.

My hope is that we as a nation start treating our bodies and our health a little more seriously and start prioritizing ourselves to the front of the list, and respecting our health. This, before the entire nation is dealing with old age geriatric diseases and before everyone of us is facing a mountain full of health issues and hind sight regret.

Change, step one, you must want it.

I have decided that no matter what we decide to do with our health betterment, the only way it will stick and we will be successful is when we, ourselves are ready for the change. Many times, it seems that we make changes to better serve our friends, our spouses or even the Doctors requersts, and although they are most likely important and could help us, it is not us who is making the change.

I have seen some many times a spouse or a friend that has come into a health food store asking for information or to buy products for their friends who needs to get their health in order. I understand their concern, and it is a wonderful thought, but unless the person picks the products up themselves, or does the research, I guarantee it will not be a success. It can't, there is no way someone is going to make life changes if they are not ready, and frankly, it is their choice and their business, and only theirs.

Am I saying that living an unhealthy lifestyle is acceptable? no. What I am saying is that because the things that make most of us unhealthy like smoking, drinking, self medicating with prescribed paharmaceutical drugs, eating junk food, not exercising and being  stressed out, are all legal.

So when people say so what are we to do just watch them kill themselves a little at a time? the answer is be supportive, get healthy yourself and maybe they will come along and get motivated, or they may do nothing. Bottom line, their life, not ours.

Stop walking over the roses, stop and smell em!

Have you ever got up in the morning, walked across the floor into the bathroom, turned on the sink water and looked in the mirror and wondered , how did I get this old? I have. I am not sure if it was something that just started slowly and eventually picked up speed, all I know is somewhere along the path, I deviated and I ended up way back on the back burner. Now do not get me wrong, I love my life. I love doing what I do, and helping others and being the first person every single person I know calls when they need help, but I think I may have hit my saturation.

When I went back to school last year, I reminded myself that I was a great student, and finished my entire degree in less than 10 months. A little OCD, maybe, well probably, but none the less, it reminded me that I still have a long way to go with me. I guess I have decided that it is time for Jeff to think about Jeff, and not put myself at the end of the line anymore. Have I regretted being the person I have always been, no. Do I want to be that person anymore, no, I do not think so.

I want to do what I do, but on my terms. Radio, and a lot of it. Helping people, yes on a bigger scale. More lectures, training and me time, you bet. Does this make me a bad person, no, quite the contrary, it makes me the same person I have always been with me in the equation for once.

I seriously think all of us need a little priority adjustment. I see and know people that end up killing themselves to make their family, friends, boss and co workers happy, and so they, our friends, can have a great nights sleep and less stress. Then, they take everyone's problems home with them every single night of their life and deal with everybody else's stuff and their own problems gets put away in a box and never looked at again. This, is  great for everyone in your life, just not so much for you.These same people will say, I love what I do, I would not have it any other way. I say that is not the truth. I think we as the "GO TO" people convince ourselves that we are more important possibly, and more needed and possibly not replaceable, and all of that is not true either. We are just people that have compromised, for all the good reasons you can think of, our own lives to make everyone elses lives around us better, easier, less complicated, happier, less stressful and possibly for them, a lot better with added quality.

So am I saying that all of us fixers and "go to" people should revolt, change who we are and stop doing what we do? NO. I am saying that first of all remember that life is precious and short, enjoy it a little more for yourself, put yourself first and primary more often, learn to say NO once and a while, remember to relax and laugh and make memories, and remember that quantity of life and quality of life do not run parallel without your cooperation or your support support.

Does it ever make you wonder

As I continue to do more and more radio shows on a regular basis, and as questions, from emails are becoming a large part of the topics I discuss, I see a rapidly escalating trend to even more diminishing health. Not that we have not already known that America has become more sick, more unhealthy, and is now using every source of band aid medicine possible to get through the day, we knew this. What I am seeing is a trend that Americans are starting to get sick and tired of using just the quick cover up fix.

Lately, I am getting so many emails on the topic of alternatives, and on the subject of being tired of using pharmaceuticals and still feeling so bad every day, and the side effects. For so long, the pharmaceutical fixes have become the one and only path followed by the masses. Whether it is antibiotics for everything or just a numerous amounts of across the board drugs given to everyone without an allowance for all of our individual differences. Has it ever bothered you, or have you ever wondered that you and someone else are on the same medication for a health problem? Although your weight may be different by fifty pounds, one of you is semi healthy the other is very unhealthy, one smokes, one drinks, one is in a high stress job and the other is retired. Please tell me how the outcomes could be anywhere near similar and how can this magic drug have the what for to help both people?

I get so frustrated when I hear about the "across the board" recommendations of medications with no individuality taken into account. Amazingly enough, when you are using natural alternatives the dosage, lifestyle, quantity used and even the brand and delivery systems and individual habits ARE taken into consideration, so why not meds?

One solid conclusion...

After 32 years in the health and nutrition field I have come to one solid conclusion. I have many ideas about different things but this one is concrete. People have to want to change. They have to want to change and need to change and be tired of the present situation and it has to be in their mind, heart and soul or nothing will work and no benefits will be gained.

Expo West 2011

EXPO WEST was this past weekend in Anaheim California. A yearly meeting of the minds, if you will, of the top in every avenue of the health and nutritional  field. Manufacturers, raw product distributors, companies, retail store owners, writers, guest lecturers, media folks and of course, the masses.

I had wondered with the recession and times being tough, if it would be well attended. My answer was yes, and well attended it was. I am sure that as a nation many of us are starting to really take control of our health, and many of us seem to be taking back the decision making and separating ourselves from governmental intervention.

I was lucky enough to be asked to do what I do at the show. Saturday afternoon, I interviewed on my radio show live 6 amazing guests in the business. It was amazing and although crowded and noisy and with all of the action going on, my guests and I connected and sailed through six incredible interviews.

I have such a passion for what I do and a heart felt dedication that it ends up being just fun for me, and from what I hear, a pleasure for the listeners. So, one more year of Expo West has come and gone and so many new and wonderful things are now coming at us. All of which will help us live healthier lives and hopefully, provide us with the choices to have a great quality and quantity of life.

Looking out..

I have spent a lot of time in the hospital with my Mom recently, and I guess I am seeing things differently a little every day. First of all, it is such a factory in the hospital and going through emergency room, it is timing as to who gets seen first and the best care, and the quickest. I understand that they are overworked and the stress level is intense, and just the personal dodging of diseases and sickness day in and day out is a lot for me to comprehend.

No matter who you are, your intelligence, background or even you medical or nutritional expertise, you become a number when you are in the hospital, You are at the hand of others who will get to you when they can, or sometimes when they want to. Frustrating, and utterly such high stress levels and emotional overload, I am not sure if I was the one in the bed , if I could handle it.

I was looking out the window look at all the cars driving by, the world going on around us, and people just doing what they do every day. I wondered how many people, as they were driving by, were thinking of the people grasping for life and trying to get healthy enough to just go home and become the ones driving by again. I thought, why is the world going on around us like nothing was happening? It was then I realized that I drive by this hospital frequently, and have never really thought about it either.

Life is short, and most people are just trying to get through the day. The people in here are trying to get home, and all of us, in our own way, are just trying to stay healthy enough and not be in the hospital..



I am back...

I AM BACK..After much craziness, and a busy busy work schedule, I will be posting on a regular basis...
Stay Healthy

Wow..time is moving quickly already

It is amazing to me how fast time goes by, almost at hyper speed. Wasn't it just New Years eve yesterday? I guess what they say when you are younger you cannot move time fast enough and when you get older you claw into the floor trying to slow it down. I see it every day, although it was always there I guess I did not pay attention until now that it is important to me.

I see bill boards for plastic surgeons for plastic surgery, night cream and emollient lotions to take the foot tracks of time that have walked across out faces. As I flip through the stations at night I seem to land on cosmetic surgery stations...Ok I admit it,m I am over 50....

Just a quickie..

So many of us need to pull ourselves off the back burner of priorities. We have so many things on our "to do" list that we somehow have forget how to focus on us. So although we all have those New Years Resolutions in our minds and hopefully in place, make a new one to put yourself in the priority position, maybe for the first time ever. I think you will be amazed how incredible the view is when you are in front of the line!

A gasp for breath restarts a drive forward towards my goals

So if you read my bio you instantly know that I coming from a history of knowing all the correct things to do as far as health and nutrition are concerned. I am also human, which sometimes is not a plus because it brings with it a tendency to think in the craziest ways and know every avenue for rationalization that has ever been thought of.
I want to be able to give a daily update into the mind of someone who knows better, should know better yet humanly does not apply all of the knowledge that is available to me. I, like everyone else uses stress, busy schedules, lack of focus, ADD, ADHD, ABC ,XYZ and even 123 as a foundation for my lack of prioritizing and allowing myself to achieve the target I have been aiming at for over 20 years. Me like so many of us live on the back burner of life always helping everyone else around us better their lives but pushing ourselves towards a lifetime of tomorrows to get ourselves started and focused on our own goals.
Although I have another blog devoted to health and nutrition, this blog is dedicated to the world of us who fit the protocol for being in need of change with all the tools but no key that starts the engine

This morning as I was getting ready for work and heading to the station, one of my dogs was trying to jump on my lap and another was licking my face all while I was hunched over wearing a pair of jeans that have seen better days in the stretched too far category trying to tie my shoes, I suddenly sat up quick and gasped for breath and said enough already... Time to bring Jeff up to the front burner