Detect Your Attitude

Understand that your attitude effects you, and everyone and everything around you. 

Honestly evaluate your attitude over the long term, and the short term, in general, and in specific situations.

Understand that you have a choice, that you are in control.

Evaluate influences that cause you to feel the glass is half full, or half empty.

Ask a coach or a trusted friend for sincere feedback on what they see. Do you agree or

disagree?

Determine how you can live mindful of accentuating the positive, in general, and in specific areas.

Develop a “warning” system that allows you to detect potentially unhealthy situations, then reframe them in a more actionable caring manner. 

Commit to monitoring your attitude for a specific period of time, intent on the positive.

Evaluate your findings. Keep a daily log. 

Allow a coach to hold you accountable to your higher self. 

Choose to be your best, make the commitment. 

We have all been imprinted by our past. However, if past learned behaviors do not serve us well today, we can choose to change. Behavior shifts, and reframing knee jerk reactions take time, attention, and action. See challenges as opportunities to boost emotional growth, self-efficacy and self-respect. As we free ourselves from our old ways of being, we start attracting rich new experiences and vitality. 

Live well,
Danielle

Healthy Weight

Healthy Weight Tips

1. Put your goals where you can see them. Start by jotting down your goals, 1/2 to 2 pounds a week is a healthy rate.

2. Exercise daily, for the health of it, but also because it makes weight loss or maintenance easier.

3. Choose non-fat and low fat dairy products.

4. Send trigger foods to the dog house. Empty out all unhealthy foods from your pantry and drop it off at a homeless shelter.

5. Restock the right way. Purchase healthy versions of the foods you enjoy.

6. Eat breakfast, it kicks your metabolism into drive.

7. Weekly weigh-ins are best. Everyday weight fluctuations are normal and can be de-motivating.

8. Sip slim drinks.

9. Pair fruit with protein for a feel of satiation. Follow RDA guidelines of 2 to 3 servings per day.

10. When out dining focus on vegetables and broiled or grilled fish, chicken breast, or lean beef, with little or no sauces.

11. When out dining with friends who eat poorly, consciously ask yourself, “Is this going to serve me WELL? Will I feel good about my choice later, or tomorrow?

12. Moderation, not deprivation. Split the main course and eat half.

13. At weekly weigh-ins reward yourself for success, non-food related.

14. Make snacks nutritious and satisfying. Ex. 10 almonds and an apple.

15. Have a plan for dinner and lunch. Be prepared and aware.

16. Eat plenty of fiber foods and drink lots of water. Ex. Whole grains, lentils, vegetables and fruit.

17. Accept that there is no quick fix or easy weight loss. It takes commitment and persistance.

18. Weekends are as challenging as weekdays take them seriously.

19. Eat in front of a mirror not the TV. In other words, stay conscious of what

you’re doing.

20. Get adequate sleep. When you do not sleep your body craves more calories.

21. Veg Out. Think in terms of eating more vegetables daily.

22. Take a multiple one-a-day vitamin. Ex. Centrum

23. Shop at Farmer’s Markets. This keeps you out of the supermarket where there are many empty calorie temptations and it gives you an appreciation for the quality of fresh natural foods.

24. Eat consciously. Eat at a table, with a plate, and silverware. Make it count as an event. Be mindful.

25. Close the Kitchen. Block the kitchen off from your mind, and body, three hours before bedtime.

26. Limit alcohol. Yes this is about calories, but also about uninhibited eating.

27. Cut back on salted foods. They make you feel bloated by causing water retention and then de-motivate you.

28. Many people find satisfaction out of eating 4 to 5 smaller meals throughout the day. Giving your body food burns calories. Eat every three to five hours as needed.

29. Stay away from refined sugar. It just makes you want more of it and has little nutritional value. 

30. Stay away from white pasta. Because it has been stripped of almost all nutritional value, it does not satiate and takes a lot to fill you up. Try a one-half-cup serving of whole-wheat pasta.

Anti-aging Secret Unlocked.

In 1990 Dr. Haley and colleagues published a ground breaking paper in Nature on shortened telomeres and longevity. Telomeres are the ends of DNA chromosomes. We can think of them as like those bits at the ends of our shoelaces. Studies suggest that the shorter the telomere the more is the existence of age related cellular damage such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, infections and even some cancers. 

The upside is that scientists posit that the telomeres can be lengthened by regular exercise, a plant based diet, stress management and emotional connections. While more research is underway, consider this new feather in the cap of those that practice healthy living. 

Happiness

    Remember when mom use to say, "your eyes are bigger than your appetite." That phrase is about expectations and what we imagine in our mind. As a child we imagined the pleasure we would receive by consuming a large amount of our favorite treat. If a small amount is heavenly, we imagine the induced exhilaration of a large amount. Unfortunately, the expected reward of overindulging did not necessarily meet reality, and often we became physically sick. The same may be true of any happiness enhancing futuristic thought. We get more out of the thought than the actual action.

    Sonja Lyubomirsky, happiness scientist, suggests that happiness is getting pleasure from our daily activities, in the moment, and not from something imagined in the future. While "Different people seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life...Aristotle", living in the future makes happiness the illusive carrot.

To increase daily happiness start by,
Considering what you value in your daily activities,
Get in touch with your feelings around your valued activities,
Reflect on your daily experiences,
Take some time, everyday, to connect with people.

More to come...

Being Happier.

As I wait for my sister to arrive for our mom's day celebration, and review for my presentation tomorrow on weight management, I recall the poignant TED talk pointers from Jane McGonigal and Dean Ornish. Dean says that loneliness and depression lead to overeating, and Jane says, the key to a happy resilient life is a focus on happy feelings, connections, movement, and commitment. Tal Ben Shahar and Martin Seligman might throw in "gratitude rituals" as also important.

The bottom line is that at the end of this journey called life, if we have been physically active, emotionally pleased, mentally engaged, and socially connected, we will live longer and have less regrets. So, move every half hour, think of three pleasing experiences for every unpleasant one, grow your mental focus by committing to new tasks, and dance closely with friends. Even if this does not extent our life at least we'll have a fun journey, in that we can be grateful.

Healthy Protein Choices

HIGH PROTEIN

Each serving is approximately 33-55 calories per ounce.

You may select soybeans or tofu in place of fish, fowl or meat in a serving of 3 1/2 ozs.

Remember that 3 1/2 ozs. is one cooked serving.

Fat (gm) Chol.(mg)   Cal.     % Fat

Abalone .                                                       .3                     54       49       4.0

N. Lobster                                                     .6                     72       98       5.4

Pike                                                                 .9                     50       113     7.0

Flounder                                                         1.0                  46       129     7.0

Cod                                                                .9                     55       105     7.4

Haddock                                                         .9                     74       112     7.5

Sole                                                                .8                     42       68       10.0

Scallops                                                         1.4                  52       112     11.0

Clams                                                             2.0                  67       148     12.0

Red Snapper                                                 1.7                  47       128     12.0

Crab, king                                                      1.5                  53       97       14.0

Tuna, white, water packed                            2.5                  42       136     16.0

Turkey, white meat                                        3.2                  69       157     18.0

Sea Bass                                                       2.6                  53       124     19.0

Halibut                                                            2.9                  41       140     19.0

Chicken, white meat                                    3.6                  85       165     20.0

Oysters                                                          2.2                  50       90       22.0

Mussels                                                         4.5                  56       172     23.0

Trout                                                               4.3                  74       151     26.0

Beef, top round                                             5.4                  84       184     26.0

Pork tenderloin, lean only                             4.8                  93       166     26.1

Swordfish                                                       5.1                  50       155     30.0

Beef flank, lean only                                    7.3                  90       195     34.0

Lamp, lean leg                                              7.0                  93       184     34.0

Salmon, sockeye                                       11.0                   87       216     46.0

Sardines, Pacific,

water packed                                              12.0                   81       178     61.0

Shrimp                                                         1.1                    133     99       9.8

(only 2 ozs.)

Fun, but is it Satisfying?

Have you ever noticed that something can be fun, but leave you with an empty feeling the next day? Often times fun is instantaneous, and does not take any effort or planning. It is the trill of the moment. The promise of pleasure, of feeling good. It is the end product without the process. Fun, at its worse, can leave us sick in the soul.
Satisfaction is the attainment of basic human needs. It is engaging and has meaning. As defined by Abraham Maslow, safety, protection, belongingness, love, respect, self-esteem, identity, and self actualization are human needs. A loss of these basic needs causes illness or neurotic behavior. It is easy to fall prey to pleasures like materialism, sex, drugs, over eating, or other unhealthy distracting behaviors that block our more meaningful goal of self growth. Pleasure in and of itself does not lead to a happy life.
Napoleon Hill said that it is the process that is the most rewarding and satisfying. It is in the process that we create and use all of who we are to attain a goal or vision. It is in the process that we gain a sense of meaning in our lives, a motivating, driving, energizing, vital purpose to our life. Ultimately, for this journey to have lasting humanistic value it must be greater than self, and be of service to others.
So perhaps "living in the moment" needs to be prefaced by living consciously. Living in the moment does not serve us well when we come from irresponsibility, or we are not being true to our values. Being conscious of who we choose to be, and honoring our choices, and that of others, can be both fun and more satisfying. We do not sacrifice one for the other, but create a way of being that envelops both.
Fun is fleeting. Satisfaction brings joy and blissfulness. Satisfaction is a movement towards a more progressed self. It is the choice to take the steeper path towards self growth rather than stay in place, or regress from fear. Sometimes fun is escapism and satisfaction is bold self work. Perhaps, fun is not the peak experience. It certainly can not be sustained. Could we really survive hour after hour of pure pleasure without exploding. The gift of satisfaction is that it bestows on us a measured blissfulness created through our daily conscious efforts to be a reflection of our higher self.