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Delivering Americans from online "experts", fad eating, misleading advice and confusion about what to eat. GO TO THE PRESENTATION  Americans are confused about food. Americans were in denial about what to eat since I was young in the 1950's and still are now, more than ever just plain confused! Having followed every government recommendations since the early 1900's Americans have been duped by the FDA, food lobby's and bad science. They have undertaken every crazy magic diet plan, pills or injections, adopted the most absurd and dogmatic ways of eating according to some philosophy about saving the planet, anti aging magic weight loss, cancer cures, etc. My own research lab, my treatment room! Within my practice I have encountered many individuals following any variety of so called experts or points of view about food to their own harm. Here are some examples:
Give up eating dogmatically A word about fads, dogmatic eating and extreme diets. Don’t shoot the messenger but, these eating notions are not helping folks live longer and healthier lives. Highly restrictive eating of any kind is not healthy and is unsustainable. Leaving off any food group because someone told you it will harm you is absurd and even foolish! For example...the “NO CARB’ craze. Yes, white bread and processed carbs are not even food! But, grains rich in zinc are essential to immunity and a well functioning gut and microbiome. They enhance neurotransmitter production and make us poop fabulously! Here are a few of the most popular eating fads
Here are some examples of eating gurus:
Don't get me wrong There's a place for eating lighter, eating vegan for a spell, or focusing on more raw foods. Regular fasting, doing a juice fast or eating a mono diet for a week, 10 days maybe even a month is a good practice, not a lifestyle! There may be times of the year, we may feel like we want to eat more meat or grains. Cult like diet gurus create a staunch notion, "this is the only way to eat". That's just ridiculous! It's not normal for any being human or animal to eat according to some mental notion. The fact that most people fail in their following of these eating plans is an indication of the truth, your body will resist your effort to cause it to be malnourished. The truth is most of the folks are making BANK selling their plans, supplements, retreats and seminars. Cashing in on desperate people looking for answers...shameful! Let me repeat that!! Stop eating according to some mental notion. I have news for you...your body doesn’t give "a you know what" about your dogma and it will resist efforts to highly restrict your food. When you do this, you have eliminated the most important input you need in order to eat what is healthy for you. That is feedback from your body, it knows what you need to eat and when you need to eat it! Best source of knowledge about what you should eat is your own body. The human body has innate intelligence. You see this intelligent at work when you cut a finger and maybe you put a Band-Aid on it, but it basically heals on its own. We also see this intelligence at work in a baby who refuses to eat a certain food. This child has no particular prejudices. It simply knows it does not want to eat that food. The baby feels this way because of biological signals from the body that tell it I don't like this is not the right thing for me. When we get sick with a cold or the flu we don't feel like eating! Fasting the body's natural way of healing at work. Every normal person will go through phases where they're going to eat more or less of something because it just feels right for them. During the spring and summer months people just generally tend to eat lighter! More salads and vegetables, more fruits, which are abundantly in season over the summer. This is the way human beings are! When people are not hung up about their food dogma or not addicted to the standard American diet they're able to make healthy choices based on what they feel like they need. What a revolutionary concept! In order to In order to discern what your body truly needs, you have to be able to pay attention to it. You can reset your natural instinct for what you should be eating by fasting! Allowing yourself to become truly hungry will help you to sort out what is best for you to eat as you will naturally be attracted to what will best serve your body's needs in that moment We lose our instincts from years of eating junk and non foods, or an overly rich diet. Most of our eating is driven by either our sense of social accomplishment, "Look at me, I'm so rich I can have whatever I want!". Or, we're eating emotionally, turning to sweets in order to soothe our emotions and ease stress with a dopamine hit. Craving alcohol, carbs or cheese because indicates a candida yeast overgrowth is driving what you think you want to eat! The body is smarter than the brain With awareness and a willingness to let go of your acquired notions about food your can tap into your body's intelligence and trust it's guidance. Modeling what you eat based on ancestral diets of populations who enjoyed long and healthy lives, is the best plan. Those healthy foods are outlined below. General Dietary Recommendation is to eat whole foods. Whole foods are those which are not highly processed.Observe the 80/20 rule with this. The occasional processed food is not going to kill you! If 80% of what you eat is healthy and whole food you’re doing fine! Many “natural” foods store offer a huge selection of highly processed food...not much better than what you find in a traditional grocery store. Ideal ratios of protein, whole source carbohydrates and fats are: 10% protein, 60% fats, 30% healthy carbohydrates from whole food sources…grains, tubers, starchy vegetables, legumes and beans. Fats are crucial to brain and nerve health. Animal fats are the highest sources of the fat soluble vitamins A. D. & K. Our best source of these nutrients come from animal fats. Ruminate animals…cows, sheep, goats, bison, elk and deer eat grasses high in chlorophyll and other nutrients. Their three stomachs break down and ferment the grasses and other plants into high nutritional content which is stored in their flesh, fat cells and milk. This process benefits humans, who have an evolutionary relationship with animals and are, the ultimate omnivores. When we eat animal fats (the only sources of long chain fatty acids crucial to our health) our cells thrive. They are buoyant and protected from external toxins, viruses, bacteria and fungi. Saturated fats are stable remaining solid in all temperatures. They do not go rancid and can be used with high heat without breaking down because of their strong chemical bonds. Coconut, Palm and Olive oil along with sesame and flax oil (used in small amounts) are high in medium chain fatty acids also crucial to good health. These fats are semi solid at warmer room temperatures and solidify when colder. Coconut, palm and olive oils are saturated fats with a percentage of monounsaturated fat. They also do not become rancid…or gummy. Processed seed oils such as canola, corn oil, safflower, rapeseed, sunflower, walnut, almond and avocado oils are monounsaturated fats. They are unstable on the shelf, prone to becoming rancid and do not hold up well to heat and become toxic ingested regularly. Avocado is okay but not the most ideal source of fat. Better to just eat avocados! Hydrogenated oils are the worst. They are unsaturated fats stabilized by chemical processing for longer shelf life. Trans fats are are essentially non-foods and are responsible for the cascade of congestive heart failure, clogged arteries and diabetes. The body absorbs these fats which create a clogging effect leading to anaerobic tissues and high rates of cancer in the US population. Americans consume more of these fats that any other country in the world…something to think about! It is my hope to relieve you from the confusion about what to eat. Go to my What to Eat Freebie for the entire presentation and the What to Eat Guide! Please share it with others. Learn to Heal Your Life!
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 Why this discussion about "Evolving versus Changing"?
Most people do not believe they can change and therefore they do not!
Here is the rub! We naturally resist change. To understand why we resist change would be to unlock the secrets of the human psyche and release us all from the bondage of our willful selves! Mission impossible. It is less important to understand the why we resist and more important to understand how we can make changes that will aid our healing and not be "working" at them. As a cultural we have a tendency to believe that no one changes! Here I get to apply my favorite word, poppycock. Poppycock is basically a polite way of saying bullshit! People change every day, everything changes every day. The world around us is constantly changing with the seasons, by the hour in fact. One moment we can have a beautiful sunny day, a few minutes later storm clouds are blowing in leading to rain. The constancy of the creation, is change. It's the one thing we can count on, nothing stays the same ever! Given we are always changing... Whether or not our changing is bringing an improvement to our lives or a leading to a state of downward evolution is the issue. To understand our relationship to change we look to the the nature of life in the created world and the source or, Divine Creative Energy. God, a name we give this force, is a creator who brings forth life. There is also another aspect of God represented in the form of the Hindu goddess, Shiva the destroyer. There is obviously an element of destruction within the forces that rule our planet, our universe and the entire creation. Reduction through destruction is a natural force of evolution in which failure is inevitable. It is this failure that leads to the recharging of the system which then brings forth something new, the ongoing evolution of progressive movement forward. As humans we have the choice to evolve in a constructive and creative way to bring more abundant life to ourselves and others. Or, the opposite in which one may be unconsciously choosing to move in the opposite direction, destroying self, health and happiness.
 The truth is we all know this. But, knowing this truth and being able to consistently move in a positive or forward direction are two different things. This is the conundrum of human beings. The Apostle Paul summed it up in his comment within the book of Romans 7:24-25, "Oh, wretched man that I am who can save me from this death. That which I would do, I do not. That which I would not do, I do! " This dilemma is the experience of anybody who has ever tried to go on a "diet "! The minute you set yourself to go on some special diet or exercise plan what happens, you find yourself doing the opposite in most cases! The secret of creating change is awareness! It is not found in doing, it is found in awareness. When we become more aware of what drives our choices, of how our choices make us feel within our body, heart and mind and go further to connect The way we are now feeling to the choice we made. We begin to become motivated to choose differently. Here's an example of Type II diabetic client.
Let's pick this apart To understand how she was able to shift away from what was not working for her into something that was better. Success started with her willingness to try.
Her failure was actually the beginning of her success.
This client went on to be successful and altering her level of blood glucose to the point that she was able to come off of metformin, the standard type two diabetes, preliminary drug*.  Awareness Homework Doesn't everyone just love homework! This is not that...it is an opportunity to be more "with yourself". Awareness Homework assignments are little things I ask clients to do. Whether they do it or not is less important that what they noticed in the process of doing or not doing! These assignments naturally promote awareness and since awareness is the vehicle for change it always works! I often give an Awareness Homework assignment to become more aware of your breathing patterns. Connection to breath, our awareness of breath, and the level at which we're breathing plays a very important role in our health, well-being as well as our reactivity to stressors. When we have a good connection to our breath and are able to access a deep, smooth, conscious breathing easily it's an indication that we are well rested, grounded, and centered within our ourselves. When in this state, we are less likely to react or overreact to the crazy making behaviors of others or the stress inducing situations that arise as a normal part of life. Unfortunately, most of the people that come to see me are barely breathing. During Chi Nei Tsang sessions I monitor breathing. More often than not I observe a irregular breathing or a breath pattern that is so low they appear to be barely breathing at all! Barely breathing is a form of a freeze response, breath holding!
Chronic holding patterns Most people have their anal sphincter puckered up, are holding the jaw clenched down and the entire upper body and rib cage is usually very tight with little flexibility. This is bracing which sets up what is known as a chronic holding pattern. The body conforms to the chronic holding pattern, leaving us unable to access how we feel like a shut off valve. The psyche says I can't handle all of this so I'm just going to "push it down " and wait until it's over. Reconnect to breath is a crucial aspect of my holistic method of healing. Sessions end with discussing the breathing patterns I noticed. I give them the homework assignment to becoming more aware of their breath, practicing each morning and each evening with 10 full conscious breaths. The assignment is to simply notice what is happening as they attempt to take 10 smooth even breaths. There may be times when they are unable to actually connect with their breath at all. There may be other times when they're able to breathe quite smoothly. The noticing is the key to the ability to shift consciousness and find a new pattern. The absolute imperative is for them to understand we are not trying to "fix" the breath. The breath will evolve as we become aware of what makes it challenging to find our breath and under what conditions is it easier. In the same way my diabetic client evolved out of her symptom these clients evolve into a healthier breath connection and they feel better. The power of noticing We simply begin to notice when it is easier to connect and when it is not easy making us more aware of what leads to easier or more difficult. Getting a "feeling" for what positively or negatively impacts and alters the breath accordingly. Difficulty connecting to breath usually follows having an upset with someone, feeling overwhelmed, maybe we didn't eat enough through the day and our blood sugar is low, or we didn't sleep well. Noting the factor of negative affect allow us to be more aware of how we live in our bodies and evolve into a better way of responding to life's challenges. Whatever it is, it is in the noticing of what makes it better and what makes it worse that we begin to evolve effortlessly without "working at it". We become naturally drawn to what makes us feel better.  This is the secret of evolving. The entire earth and all created things have been constantly evolving. Metaphorically, if the earth was a person, it never sat down and said, "Wait a minute, I've gotta make a plan for this. I'm going to make these changes and this is the way it's going to happen!". That's absurd! Neither do the animals purpose or fret over the constant evolution of their species. They don't say, "Oh my goodness, I'm gaining weight, or my fur is changing color, my feet need to be smaller. I need to do something to change this." They flow within the natural environment, eat the food that is available, go hungry, feast, experience traumas and resolve them in much the same way we can. You are not a problem to be solved We force ourselves to live within a cage of our misconceptions and notions about fixing ourselves like we are a problem to be solved. As we let go of the notion that we need to be fixed and we find ourselves content to simply become aware. What am I doing and how does it feel. This non-judgemental attitude liberates us from guilt and shame and leads to great success. Nobody ever said, "I'm gonna do this thing that makes me feel horrible and keep doing this thing that makes me feel horrible because I like the feeling of feeling horrible". In cases with addiction people seem to be choosing what makes them feel horrible. Sadly, the addict is chasing a sense of comfort which they desperately need. They are mistaken in believing that the drug is going to give them that sense of comfort that it first offered them in the beginning of "using ". Recovery for the addict is the same as for everybody else. Entering into a state of self acceptance, self-pity, which is compassion and a determination to simply learn to pay attention to how one is feeling. The process of awareness allows us to begin to digest our experiences and evolve into a more mature posture. Our compassion and self love begins to nourish us, and we begin to naturally seek that which makes us feel better, because we believe that we deserve to feel better. A study which I can no longer find or access from many years ago, determined that there were three primary characteristics of people who were able to recover from terminal or chronically debilitating illness. Those three characteristics were:
Where are you at If you are facing symptoms, whether they are physical in the form of an illness or condition that you can't quite seem to shake. Or, an emotional or mental challenge such as anxiety, or depression. Possibly a spiritual challenge as in feeling lost without direction on unable to perceive where you should be moving toward in your life or perhaps a crisis of faith... is there really anything out there in the form of a divine being that loves me and is there to help and support me? Often we are in all three of these states at one time! It sucks!! But you can trust that healing is possible. You can learn to adapt your thinking away from the idea that you are a problem to be solved and need to be fixed, you can become more aware of your breathing, which will then connect you to how you feel which will then support shifting your choices away from that which makes you feel bad...this leads to the power to change as an evolution of consciousness rather than working at it! Find support Consider exploring my Breathe Guided Meditation and Course as a way to start shifting away from a negative view of yourself into a more powerful way to be in the world and having more choice about how you're living your life! See Breathing and Feeling article for more insights about breath. My blessings to all who come to believe they can Heal their Life
*Metformin is a gateway drug that ensures the pancreas will be unable to shift it's messaging system and remain locked in the excess glucose burden.
*French physicians during the Napoleonic wars discovered that low rations and starvation of soldiers lead to reversal of symptoms in diabetics. In just makes sense burn up the excess fuel and stop feeding the body foods that elevate glucose, the change that allows the pancreas to reverse it's confused signalling.  What do TMJ/TMD, Bloated Bellies and Constipation/IBS have in common?
This unlikely combination of symptoms all have in common one thing...they are representative of the body's desperate effort to get you to slow down! Swimming in the pond of alternative health care with my fellow practitioners, we all observe and work with clients/patients who manifest variations of these three common symptoms. The level at which those who suffer with these symptoms are going to to get relief is heroic! Millions are spending thousands of dollars on cures and treatments with no real relief and certainly without resolving the underlying cause. Look at the stats!
What! That's insane. Here's a look at what that money gets spent on...
Enervation a feeling of being drained of energy or vitality Is the common denominator for these conditions. Enervation is otherwise known as nervous exhaustion. This condition harkens back to the 1800's and sending someone off the coastal climes for a good long rest...right on! But, what exactly is nervous exhaustion? That is, living in the body in a way that is overdrawing on the bank of stored energy the body expends for daily functions. This includes what we busily do each day to live and be in the world. It also includes the systematic maintenance of the organ systems to detoxify and restore themselves daily. When we have overdrawn funds from the bank, we are charged a fee as a penalty. Symptoms of TMJ/TMD, chronic constipation/IBS and gut issues are the penalty for doing over much...burning qi. Keep reading to discover how we are taking out more than we have. As a wellness practitioner, I rely on the concepts of Taoist medicine in which the energetic manifestation of symptoms are the clues to resolving them. Nervous exhaustion is the manifestation of overspending Qi. Let look at qi as understood by the Taoist's. Qi is energy and information from source. However one chooses to define the energy that emanates and sustains all of the creation, it comes from somewhere! The "where" is Tao...the way. Tao is flowing and available to us as it is within us. Tao is the source of all knowledge. For the individual this would be wisdom and discernment. We find the knowledge the Tao offers us through awareness. As we come to be more attentive to awareness we are able to notice how we feel. How we feel is found in the visceral messages of the body. How do those who suffer these complaints feel?
The consistent common visceral message of these conditions speaks to the level of exhaustion due to overstimulation of the nervous system, due to over expenditure of qi...the bank is overdrawn. This condition is so pervasive in our culture that few people recognize it as the root cause of most health problems! Here it is...How do we become overdrawn on our bank of Qi?
I see these drivers manifested in all my clients who suffer from nervous exhaustion. Denial is what keeps them from seeing it. "I have it under control", "the endorphin rush from an extreme workout makes me feel better", "I will be able to slow down when I get to X. Y, Z!", "if only my_____, fill inthe blank wouldn't do this, would stop doing that everything would okay" Add to this equation the qi burning layers of emotional states such as frustration, anger, resentment, unforgiveness, undigested hurt feelings and it's no wonder folks are cranky, drink too much and seek relief in zoning out or say yes to psych meds! All the medications and meditation techniques and therapies and modalities won't do a person who's suffering from this condition any good at all until they learn not to overdraw the bank of qi. Going beyond that as they learn to cultivate qi they will gain an extra strength and stamina that will help them to maintain a healthy body throughout their lifetime. What does that mean? This means first we have to learn not to overdo. Americans are always working at something to their own harm. We think because we push and push we're getting more done, but the truth of the matter is all that pushing is usually very ineffective and not moving us any further down the road of accomplishment. It is a very attachment to accomplishment that is a driver in this endless frenzy of overstimulation and over activity. Cultivating qi means that we are actively able to achieve a state in which we can receive more wisdom, more intuition, more understanding and more power. This is a result of drawing close to the source of all energy, the Tao, God, the Godhead... by, whatever name you call it. It is the source of the life that we live. We were created to enjoy our lives and to bring joy to others. This source is LOVE. When we slow down we naturally become more aware of how we feel, we are able to receive the information that we would be best served by taking better care of ourselves. This is self LOVE. The individuals who suffer from these symptoms of commonality are suffering, primarily from a lack of self love. I can offer any one of these people a protocol that would resolve their symptoms in a relatively short period of time. It would seem miraculous to them, because it is miraculous. The body's ability to heal is beyond our understanding, and most of us fail to avail ourselves to the power of the body has to heal.
Resistance The average person's resistance can best be described as chasing down a kid who is completely exhausted and needs to take a nap. Literally getting to the point where one might need to sit on that flailing child screaming, I'm not tired, I'm not tired! Only to have them literally pass out from exhaustion within moments of being held still. RESISTANCE to what we need to feel better is another common denominator! What is your resistance all about? You cannot know because you don't know how you feel! Vanessa Goldeen Wellness Consultant and Educator, author* and holistic practitioner is the founder of Bridge to Health offering Online Learn and Heal Courses as an affordable recovery option for those who seek healing. Breathing, Sleeping, Laughing and Pooping a common sense guide to getting and staying healthy! Due out 2025, get in on the release announcement |
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