Clean up your depression!

In a life of well-being, attempting every day with intention to make healthy choices, how do we know if we are making progress?

This past week, after spending nearly the past three months on this journey of total health, I worked with a friend I hadn’t seen in over eighteen months.  While we were working together she asked, “What’s changed Steph?”  And I replied, “what?” 

She clarified her question, “Something’s different about you.  You are present, focused, energized, just as you were before, and yet it is a better quality of you that’s here working with me now.”

This friend of mine is one of the most observant people I have ever met, so I hope that what she was picking up on were the intentional changes I have been making over the past few months.

What what well this week?  It was a difficult week of Lent, and yet I held it together, despite the fact that Winter is still kicking us in the gut.  It was the first day of Spring this week, so Winter now needs to pack his bags and head north.  Because it was so cold again, I spent more time in yoga class and less time outdoors, unless it was sunny and then I went out to get a brief bit of Vitamin D.

This week, I also began Spring cleaning.  This is an important part of being a health person.  I got in an argument with my son this week about having him come over to clean up his room and closet (which are terribly messy.)  He said that it doesn’t matter, that I should just shut the door and let it sit there.  In actuality, psychologists have discovered that cleanliness and order DO create a sense of well-being and health in people.  This study (and there are more) shows that there is a link between depression and clutter.  So, when the sun did start to stream through my dirty windows, part of my own health is to clean (with vinegar, water, baking soda and hemp soap) my entire house:

http://www.austinpug.org/clutter-and-depression-are-they-interconnected/

Get cleaning…deep cleaning and you will feel better.  Even the exercise of it will help you to feel better and when those grimy windows start to let more sunshine in, you will feel eve better.

That’s all for this week.  I have my day of rest to continue!

Oh...one thing.  Since my work's gym has weird hours this week, I am going to jog outdoors and do hot yoga every day.  I want to see how that combo makes me feel this week...instead of lifting weights three times.

What's up with protein? Is it going to bring us down?

The Meat and Protein Debate

Before I get into talking about all this new info that’s out there on eating meat-based diets, just a quick update….

This week was FANTASTIC-abulous!  Kept to all of my plans and really have just felt great, even though winter lingers on and on,  and on and on and on.   There are a couple things I would say about winter – first of all, exercise every day, no matter what.  Second, eat PLENTY of fresh fruits and veggies throughout the coldest of days, even if they are canned or flash frozen – you have to get as much freshness in your diet as possible.  And the other thing is meditate to relieve the anxiety of winter.  Do it with lots  of candles around and the music you love, with pictures of things and people you love around you.

OK OK…so in the past few weeks there’s been quite a bit of debate out there in the newspapers and health columns about the new studies on meat, heart disease, protein, and cancer.  Turns out there are significant new studies that prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that eating too much protein (over 50g) in your “middle years” could be as detrimental to your health as smoking a pack a day, particularly if it is red meat protein.  These seem to cause detrimental health affects, even if it isn’t as stark as they make it.  To see the actual study, check it out here in the Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/04/animal-protein-diets-smoking-meat-eggs-dairy

No matter what we do, it always seems contradicted right?  Paleo, Atkins, and so on. Vegan, Vegetarian, Lacot-Ovo, whatever.

No matter what we do, it does seem that we’re better off eating whole foods and that about 90% of them ought to be plants.  So, that’s what I am back to these days,   And if you’re ever wondering if it’s possible, YES you can get all of your protein from plants.  The only thing is that you cannot eat lentils every day or kidney beans every day, garbanzo, adzuki, cannellini or what have you.  It has to be mixed up, along with tons of greens, and vegetables with every array of color, texture, and flavor.

P.S.:  Just to address my dear friend James VandenBosch…who recently accused me (in fun) of a bit of conspicuous virtue with my blog, well I hope Jim that next year I can give up conspicuous virtue for lent!

Losing Sleep? Let's try to fix this.

This week I want to talk about sleep, but before I get there, I want to just quickly update my health journey this week.

What went well?  Actually, let’s begin with what DID NOT go well.  Sigh.  Since I began this cleanse in earnest, to carry me through the time of Lent, I had some trouble the first couple of days with both sugar (as usual) and gluten.  Since I make wonderful organic home-made bread, I was feeling the loss of it big time.  Still, I dedicated myself to a complete break from both gluten and dairy.  This was on the advice of an allergist who thought some of my other troubles with inflammation and such might be due to a gluten allergy.  Genetically Modified grains are wreaking all kinds of havoc on people’s systems, but in order to find out if that’s truly the cause of it, you do have to give it up for at least 30 days to see if that’s what the problem is. 

Nevertheless, it’s been difficult.  And I must confess that I replaced bread with corn and rice, which is not great either.  So this week, I am not going to eat those either.  Seriously, one day I was craving gluten so much that I ate an entire bag of rice chips (the sea salt ones are delicious).  So, that was not good.  If you break one habit but create another one equally as damaging, that is NOT GOOD.  And rice converts to sugar so quickly in the digestive process that I really need to steer clear of rice chips, rice crackers, tortilla chips and so on.  Ugh.  OK, I can do this!  It will be a difficult week, but I can do it!

Now, what went well…lots of things.  My vegetable ratio has gone up considerably and that is wonderful.  My focus is always better away from sugar, so that is another positive for the week.  Yoga four times per week is gorgeous and I want to continue this for the rest of my life.  And since it is beginning to be spring, I braved the cold and ran outside for the first time in months and it felt fantastic.  5 miles around Reed’s Lake with the wind whipping away, but at the end I was on the top of the world. And, probably best of all, I am sleeping like a baby for at least 7 hours per night, trying to work up to 7.5-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night. 

Daylight losing time.  That’s what we used to call this in college…when the American clock surges forward one hour at 2 am in the Springtime of every year.  I thought I would use this as an opportunity to talk about sleep, because it’s one of my 52 pieces of health advice to “get a good night’s rest every night.”  But what does this mean, really?

I think if we look at children who sleep a full eight to nine hours per night, we can see what’s needed.  A couple of year’s ago I was having a terrible time sleeping, so I went to see a sleep specialist and she took a look at my habits and did four extensive interviews with me, plus did some tests and such to rule out any major diseases or disorders.  What we discovered is that I have the most common sleep disorder – trauma or PTSD induced insomnia.  Basically, something happened in your life that began to interrupt your sleep cycle.  This could be a huge life changing event, witnessing an accident, being in an accident, serving in wartime, etc.  Whatever the event was isn’t the issue, rather it’s the trigger point that causes the sleep disorder to set in.  So, then, you have trouble sleeping without some help. 

But sleeping aids, almost all of them, are addictive, and they cause “false sleep” or sleep that isn’t truly restful.  So, what is safe and what is effective?

Biofeedback.  Meditation.  Chamomile.  Lavender.  Warm baths before bed.  No television or computers in the bedroom.  A cool dark sleep environment.  No food at least two hours before sleep.  No alcohol (it causes middle of the night waking).  No caffeine in the afternoon or evening.  A bedtime ritual that includes any or all of the above.  You have to make one for yourself and stick to it.  Then you also have to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, even on the weekends.  This is vital.  So, sleeping for 12 hours on Saturday is not going to “catch up” on sleep loss from the entire week.  All science points to the need for a high level of regularity with sleep.

So, what do I do now to help myself sleep?

I practice meditation before sleeping.  I make sure I am warm (but not hot) and especially my feet and hands.  I drink a cup of chamomile tea.  I do not eat three hours before bedtime.  And if I am famished, I eat a handful of almonds or some other nut.  I read until I fall asleep.  It works for me.  I would love to see more people getting regular sleep…it could make the world a much more peaceful happy place.  

Detox. Welcome to Lent

This week, what went well?

Have to confess, this was a difficult one because it just was so cold and snowy…and it started to get to me even more than last week.

I did manage to get to the gym and/or yoga everyday.  I did manage to keep up my wellness journal and food diary and kept up the contemplative prayer practice.  All of this went well.

What didn’t go well?

It’s eating that went out the door.  I mean, I did eat my green smoothie every day, so at least I know I was getting some healthy stuff, but I overdid it on sugar twice because I was just feeling low and wanted a lift.  It would have been better if I could’ve gone for a walk, but it is so cold and then there’s the fact that it was super busy as well.  This week will be better.  You know, the important thing is to recognize that this is a journey and whenever we stumble, we just get back up and keep going.  We cannot let it throw us off the powerful journey to true health.  And I call this journey powerful, because in January and February I felt the power of health in the fact that I did not get sick when EVERYONE around me was sick and I kept trucking right along.  I did get low emotionally once or twice (or three or four times) but nothing that wasn’t manageable with a session of yoga and meditation…or a good time rehearsing with my students!

This week I begin a 40 day Lenten journey for spiritual understanding and health consciousness taken to the next level.  I am going to do a whole foods detox for the first 10 days of Lent, including no dairy and no sugar (we know how much I struggle with that one) and no gluten.  Basically, trying to get the body to a place where we can tell how it responds to allergens and such.  So, I know most of my allergies, but I feel like we can always be more in tune with ourselves physically and spiritually.  This will be the first ten days of my Lenten journey, beginning with a 24 fast on Wednesday to mark the beginning.

Recently there has been great discussion about detoxing and fasting in books and in the popular media.  I read the “Fast Diet” last year which advocates a 2 day 5 day play where you fast two days per week, eating just 500 calories on those two days and then eat normally on the other five days.  There is a great deal of evidence, scientifically speaking, that fasting is good for you and they cite many of the studies in the book.  Take a look, if you are interested:

http://www.amazon.com/The-FastDiet-Healthy-Intermittent-Fasting/dp/1476734941/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393803248&sr=8-1&keywords=the+fast+diet

I tried it for awhile but didn’t see any results.  At the time I was trying to lose 10 pounds.  Actually, I am off of that game of losing weight.  I am just going to be healthy healthy all the way by taking care of myself at every level. 

During this detox that I am about embark on, I will practice contemplative prayer twice per day (20 minutes each) and practice yoga four times per week, cutting back on strenuous exercise and doing quite a bit of walking and elliptical training just to keep my body active.  Then, after that initial 10 days, I will add in more energizing foods and be able to return to my normal routine. 

So, I will begin and end the day in contemplative prayer throughout lent, plus make sure I am only eating foods that detoxify.  Most of the animal products will be gone except those few that I buy local from farmers.  Salts and such are cut to a bare minimum.  Again, the goal is to bring you to a zero level where allergens are not in the body.  In fact, I just cleaned most of my house with vinegar and water, changed the air filter and aired out the house (despite how cold it is). 

Whatever you can do to detox during Lent, do it.  Take a 40 day journey.  If you need some help, I think that the Daniel Plan is quite good for both spiritual and physical detoxifying.  This was the plan used by Saddleback church when their members collectively lost 250,000 pounds and more.

Here is that website:

https://www.danielplan.com/

My day will look like the following:

First, contemplative prayer

Second, water and lemon with cayenne

Third, Yoga or other exercise

Fourth, green smoothie

Sixth, working and staying focused

Seventh, a healthy lunch of greens and protein

Eight, More work and staying focused

Ninth, Dinner of health fibers and proteins

Tenth, Rehearsal

Eleventh, Prep for the next day

Twelfth, contemplative prayer and sleep

It will be a good 40 days, I am certain.  The first ten are the most restrictive, so this will take some work, but I know that I can do it. 

P.S.  I am actually not following the Daniel Plan, but combining the knowledge I have learned from several detox plans.