Superbowl Sunday, it is a day of mass quantities!!

Superbowl Sunday, a time honored tradition for many an American. All over the country freinds and families have gathered to watch the game, eat, visit with each and catch up on the latest happenings in each others lives, eat and watch the game, and did I mention eat?

This is a day of mass quantities and calories and consumptionat it's best. Tomorrow, many of us will feel the ramifications of today's fun and festivities. Upset stomach, hangover, headaches, empty pockets for the Las Vegas betters, maybe full pockets for some of you, and the guilt of breaking the New Years resolutions in every which way we can.

Let us face it, we are human and we spend most of our lives having the best intentions, climbing back on the wagon we just fell off of and dealing with the guilt we put mentally put on ourselves.

I think we all need to realize that moderation is the goal we should all be looking for, with the occasional pary day like today, and enjoy and get back wih the program tomorrow and just enjoy and stop guilting yourselves the day after.

So have fun, partake, enjoy the festivities, your friends and families and make some memories to keep with you. Life is short, too short, so have a great time and if you do partake in alcohol consumption, have fun but throw your car keys away for the day.. Go Patriots!!!!

Week one down, are you still on course?

So how has your first week of your New Years resolutions gone so far? I think, believe it or not, it has been a very successful week for most people. From all of the emails I have received I think people were a little more motivated or a little more disgusted at how they treated themselves last year. Whatever the real reason, congratulations.

They often say that breaking an old habit or creating a new good or bad one takes about three weeks, so in a few more weeks you will be able to better see if you have made it over the hump and started making these changes a more permanent solution.

I hope that for all of you that this is the year you succeed with any and all changes you have wanted for a long time and also that all of your transitions be smooth, semi painless and that you see such great benefits that you never look back.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!!!

I am finally back and ready to write and pass on healthy tips and suggestions after a busy December.

December found me volunteering the entire month for an organization here in Las Vegas called the "Magical Forest". This is a Christmas themed event that benefits Opportunity Village, an organization that helps Mentally handicapped adults get on their feet, working, earning a paycheck and also provides all of the help these special adults need to live as close to normal lives as possible.

I learn so much every year when I am helping with this great organization. First of all, we are all a bunch of wimps here in America. We complain about the most ridiculous things that mean almost nothing, and we are so spoiled, almost to the level of absurdness!

We as Americans have the most of everything that we can possibly handle for making our lives wonderful, and yet we complain about that as well. We are lucky enough to have more choices for everything than almost every other country, and we are still not satisfied. I am amazed every time I hear people complaining about the most ridiculous thing and with such passion that I really do feel that if most of us were put somewhere that offered little to no cushy lifestyles and multiple choice alternatives, we would most likely die.

The New Year should actually be called Thanksgiving in my mind because it is actually the time for all of us to stand back and be thankful for another year of good health, good fortune and a great life. The thing is, even if it was not that great or healthy, we should still be thankful for living in a place where we have the tools to turn it around and make this year the best ever.

Be thankful for all you have and appreciate the choices you have, and most of all the right to be as healthy as you would like to be!

Happy New Year to all of you and yours

A way to get pointed in the right direction

Over the years the most common question I have always been asked is with all the things on the shelf in health food stores, what do I really need? My answer to this question is always the same, "how do you feel?"This really is the deciding factor when starting a supplement program.

Many people will say I have been taking this and that for years, and my question is still always the same, "how do you feel?" The funny thing is so many people will say lousy, or tired, or just exhausted or I hurt, or I cannot sleep, I usually ask why do you keep doing something that does not work? And after they think for a second, most people say I do not know, habit I guess.

Today I want to give you a list of questions to ask yourself to see what areas you need to focus on, and you may find the questions to be things you never though could relate to how you feel. It basically gives you some guidelines or parameters to work with so you are not taking a stab in the dark, but instead hitting the nail on the head ,if you will.

1) Do you drink a lot of caffeine

2) Do you eat many servings of sugar?

3) Do you eat in between meals?

4) Are you a rollarcoaster dieter?

5) Do you have more than a couple meals served through the window of your car?

6) Do you starve yourself and then binge eat all night at home?

7) Do you eat when depressed?

8) Are you exercising?

9) Do you sleep well at night?

10) Are you an anxious person?

11) Does stress rule your life?

12) Are you moody, or negative all the time?

13) Do you eat at least three servings of vegetables daily?

14) Is your digestive system working correctly?

15) Are you on more than one medication?

16) Do you drink 8 glasses of water every day?

17) Do you work on computers daily and are your eyes healthy?

18) Is your blood pressure normal?

19) How are you hormonally?

20) Do you use antibiotics frequently?

21) Have you been to the dentist within the last twelve months?

22) Have you had bloodwork and a physical in the last year?

23) Do you work in a germ filled atmosphere at work?

24) Are you a happy person?

25) Are you always tired and running behind?

26) Do you have eliminations every single day?

27) Are your fingernails and hair healthy?

28) Have you ever taken vitamins on a regular basis?

29) Is your skin healthy and do you have adult acne?

30) Is your cholesterol normal or high?

31) Are you a diabetic, is it in the family and have you been tested?

32) Do you have a pet?

33) Do you travel frequently?

34) Do you bruise easily and do your gums bleed?

35) How is your memory and do you get headaches frequently?

36) Do you have a nervous stomach?

37) Do you have hobbies or activities you do outside of work?

38) Do you have seasonal allergies?3

9) Do you watch a lot of television?

40) Are you a procrastinator?

41) Do you cook at home or eat out more often?

42) Do you study or taking classes or continuing education of any kind?

43) Have you switched careers in the last year?

44) Do you smoke or drink daily?

45) Have you gone through any surgery in the last year?

46) Do you now or have you ever had cancer and completed treatment?

47) Do you salt your food before tasting it?

48) Do you spend more time indoors or outdoors?

49) Are you a slow eater or do you eat on the run and quickly woof your food?

50) Have you always been nutritionally oriented or is this new?

This will be enough to get you started. I think you should print this and answer the questions. You yourself will find a pattern and will almost for certain link many of the problems you may be experiencing to your own bad habits. We sometimes are such creatures of habit that the craziest things become normal until you see them in print.

Make sure to hold on to these questions because every month I will add some more. This will let you get closer and closer to formulating your own areas that you will want to pay attention to. Something that drives me crazy is when you are told that one thing will do great for everyone, which is absurd because we are all different.

This list is also something to take with you when you start researching nutrition. If you are lucky enough to find someone nutritionally well versed and trained, they will be able to look at this list and give you a very focused nutritional program that you yourself will get great benefits from. If on the other hand, you go somewhere where the individual knows next to nothing, kindly say thank you and leave and go somewhere else. Never feel obligated to compromise with your health, NEVER.

Always feel that you are working with someone that is knowledgeable and knows about health situations and also medications and side effects, and is well versed in alternatives. I always tell everybody to ask yourself, would you let this person work with and make a vitamin supplement program for your mother? Hopefully you like you Mother and you would want a trusting individual to work with her. If your gut tells you yes, then give them a try.

Nutrition is like buying a car. Not everybody will fit in a corvette, some people need a truck, an SUV, or an economy car. The great thing is when you ask yourself questions and get a better grip on your own health, you actually narrow down the choices, which is a good thing.Good luck...

How far back on the back burner do you live?

Another month bites the dust as we approach the crazy holiday season. It is amazing how fast this year has zoomed by for me, and from what everyone says, for them too!

I often wonder if it is due to the super speed we push ourselves to maintain or is it that we take so very little time to relax and actually enjoy life at all? I am sure it is a little of both with a sprinkle of forgetting to slow down and smell the roses, a dash of over working and a side of doing everything for everyone else and forgetting to do for ourselves. The combination does make time go by quickly and it puts us at the front of the line for premature heart attacks, strokes and early retirement to the grave.

Most individuals will not slow down until something serious happens to them or the Doctor orders them to make a change, or one day they cannot function at that speed anymore and they instantly begin to fall apart at the seams. You would think, as we are all intelligent people here that we could just look in the mirror and realize we are changing, and in most cases not for the better, and that we have no time for ourselves and because we never say no to anyone I guess you could say it is self induced stress. Day after day and month after month leading to year after year we push ourselves so far back on the burner of life that we can actually forget our own dreams and aspirations until we start to forget who we really are. This is a common scenario and an unhealthy one too.

When you are the one person that always does everything for everyone, believe you me the word gets out quick and you become the person that never says no and will help everyone with everything. I have found this was the case for me for more years than I want to admit. It all rang true when after helping so many people move over the years that I had lost count of the friends I helped relocate. I finally had a chance to do some relocating and I called and everyone had something to do, amazing how that happens that everyone is busy at the same time? I started thinking that no matter what I had to do, I would never say no, so I said to myself, maybe I need to say no once in a while when I really cannot help out or do a favor.

The next week one of my acquaintances called and needed me to help with some stuff, obviously one of the ones that was too busy to help me, so I said sorry I am busy. Well you could have heard a pin drop, wow I thought to myself. My friend said really? I said yep, he said well I guess I will have to rent a truck. I felt very weird saying no, but I felt great because I have so much going on already I would have never got caught up if I had once again joined in.

The moral of the story is that we all have normal stress in our lives and if you are an over doer, sometimes you need to, for your health to just say no. The other thing was the world did not stop and they got over it quickly and possibly learned a lesson that I am not the end all helper anymore.

The stress of being an over doer can affect your blood pressure, your heart, cause depression and affect your health and well being. We want to always help but in the long run and at the end of the day, sometimes it just stresses us out and negatively affects our health beyond belief.

I guess I have decided that moderation is the key to a much more balanced life in every aspect of our being. Sometimes saying no when we really have to is an alright thing, and putting ourselves first for once is a Great Thing!!!!!

Why did I walk in this room and where did I park my car?

Have you ever had one of those days that made you feel you left your brain somewhere else other than in your head? I think it is just so frustrating when you forget the simplest things like a name or number or why you walked into a room. They say it is all a sign of growing older but I really feel in many cases it is stress, the stuff that gets us all tied up in circles to the point where we do not know if we are coming or going.

I mean when we get away from the bump and grind of work and the day to day stress, it seems that our brains go back to normal, so what do we do to help us while we are in the stress of the moment, and we need to be at our mental and focal best? They always say that cardiovascular exercise is a good start and I really do agree as it really does get the blood circulating and forces blood to the starved areas like our overloaded brains.

I was at the mall today and when I was leaving I noticed about four or five people walking aimlessly around the parking lot looking for their cars. Is it that they had so much on their minds when the parked that they did nit pay attention. Could they actually be on the other side of the mall and they are not even in the correct lot? Yes, is the answer, when we are concentrating on so many things we lose the simple short term memory temporarily. It does return and when it does we are always so happy with ourselves.

I think that Disneyland has the right idea, they label their parking lots with the name of cartoon characters, I mean how hard is it to forget that you are parking in Goofy 4? I guess at one time it was a big problem so they re labeled. I guess the people that never found their cars are now the employees in costume everyday, they just kept them there and put them to work!

Nutrition may also be a great step. Avoiding white bleached flour and sugars and food that are empty in nature or has been emptied of nutrition by processing. Increasing nuts and seeds and green veggies and protein seems to be the direction we need to be heading in, and away from the other stuff that tastes great and does zero for our bodies.

What about a list of nutritional supplements that help focal attention. Ginkgo Biloba, Vinpocetine, Huperzine, Choline, DMAE, B Complex to name a few are the leading brain nutrients getting the best attention and feedback.

I am sure you read every day how we are living longer but at the same time dodging geriatric diseases that we should not be anywhere near facing for a few more decades. I myself feel, as do the best nutritional Physicians in the country that dodging the bullets with an arsenal of diet and exercise and nutrition that we can definitely slow down the aging process and avoid the mental grim reaper.So do not despair when you cannot finish a thought, or when you walk into a room and have absolutely not a clue why you are there. And do not worry when you are at the mall and you cannot find your car, just go back in and do some more shopping and pretend it was just a fresh air break. I guarantee the short term memory stuff will come back if you take better care of the one organ that needs some TLC on a daily basis, your brain!!!

Remember how important your pet is to your life and your health!!!

In a time where happiness and success in life is measured by the almighty dollar, it is good to know that many people measure their success by their friends, their families and the loving devoted pets.

If you are not a pet owner or an animal owner this may be something that is hard for many of you to understand how much richer a life can be that has a pet in it. Pets are the missing link in a life when many people have stress that ruins their life, or loneliness that seems to go on forever, disease and hardship, depression and basically a thankless world that expects all and many times gives nothing back. In a world where we are judged not only by performance and going ten times beyond what is expected just because people think we should and being asked to put our lives so far on the back burner to make other people successful that we sometimes seem to disappear.

Where we are judged by the clothing we wear, what we drive where we live, how we eat, the friends we associate with as well as our dislikes and likes.There is some peace of mind and it is great to know that a pet is the neutral part of our life that does not care about any of the above.

Bad hair days, being overweight, being a bit of a couch potato, or wanting to just hang out and do nothing, our pets are happy to be in the room and a part of the moment. It is amazing that they can actually stimulate our immune systems, help to ease loneliness and lower blood pressure, yet ask nothing back in return except love and being your friend and devoted companion.

Today my very good friend Peni said goodbye to her best friend Poutie. A companion, family member and friend for fifteen years. This blog is to appreciate our four legged friends and maybe to remind us just how important our pets really are as companions and to our health and well being.

Below is a poem I love. Peni, I hope it helps to get you through the days upcoming a little easier.

The Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind. They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster. You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart. Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...