Category: mental health

Finding Good Habits

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I’m pulled in a magnetic way to buy special edition magazines. To read to get information that can help me have a better life.

The latest issue was the Real Simple Finding Good Habits: Simple Keys to Feeling Happier, Healthier, and More Fulfilled. I quote from the guide to encourage followers to buy and read it.

Though I haven’t read every article yet one stands out about The Power of Habits. In the feature it describes making your bed in the morning as a “keystone habit.”

In fact if this can be believed:

“Bed making is correlated with better productivity, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger money management skills.”

Do millionaires make their beds every morning then? Could this be a hidden secret to wealth-building?

In Small Changes Big Results:

Adding a tiny micro-habit to our daily routines can give us joy. Rather than take a once-a-year Cozumel vacation to an azure beach (that we might not afford to pay off) happiness can be had for a song every day of the year for free or low-cost.

One study reported in the article that adding a food ritual can help us. It’s why wine drinkers who swirl their glass before drinking are apparently more satisfied.

Making it convenient to perform a habit is the key. Fill a 23-ounce aluminum water bottle before going to bed. Keep it on your night table. Voila–it’s easy to start the day with imbibing what I’ve called The Drink of Life.

One last key factor in this second article is to Rework your vocabulary. Quoting Seattle-based life coach Patricia Love: Repeating the phrase “I choose” or “I get to” “helps shift us into a happier state.”

Reworking our vocabulary this way can get us to see a healthy habit as a positive choice we’re making not a burden. This is why I believe too that not using the vocabulary of “I have to” is the key factor in transforming how we view what we need to do.

Framing what we need to do as something we want to do is the difference.

In the end changing our perception from negative to positive is what it’s all about. Those rituals we engage in might just keep us happier, healthier, and more fulfilled.

One habit I have is using a different ceramic mug each season to drink water from at the dining table with meals. I choose a mug whose color complements the table decor. This subtle change keeps me motivated to drink the water with every meal.

I’ll end here with this:

Like with anything I’ve recommended you could be fearful of doing something that appears to be strange or out of the ordinary. It can be unsettling for some of us to think that others will think we’re not normal. The question is: Why should we care about people who don’t care about us?

Our health and wellbeing count more than others’ opinion of how we choose to live and what we choose to do. If they’re really interested in being healthy, when they see how effective we are they’ll want to copy us!

Cooking as Therapy

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The photo is an image of a recipe in Cooking as Therapy book.

This month I checked out of the library the new book published last month: Cooking as Therapy: how to improve mental health through cooking. Each chapter on how to heal what you feel features three recipes: a Fast Lane, Easy Rider, and Scenic Route that take 5 minutes, 30 minutes, and an hour respectively.

You’re supposed to wash your hands before you begin and I forgot this.

In Session Four: Surviving Sadness I used the Fast Lane: Top It All Off Treat. I chose this recipe first not because I was depressed. Anyone who’s feeling ordinary sadness or is grieving could follow this recipe.

The ice cream sundae in the photo above is what I created to Top It All Off as my Treat. Who could resist having ice cream as a form of therapy?

In each chapter the author who is an LCSW features recipes she’s preplanned for readers to use. At the end of the book she gives readers a list of food ingredients and methods for using the food on your own. To create unique recipes customized to what you’re going through.

I recommend installing Cooking as Therapy on a Kindle or iPad or checking it out of the library if you can’t afford to buy it.

A library is a free college of knowledge. And hey today if you return a book late as long as it’s checked back in a lot of libraries will remove the fine you incurred.

I’m going to Top It All Off again every so often. My first foray into doing this sparked an ingenious idea I had for a celebration to host at the beginning of the year like Kwanzaa only for individuals living in recovery.

Stay tuned for the details on this coming up.

The Life-Changing Magic of Individuality

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Just reading about getting organized might throw some people into shame. To counter this I wanted to write in here about the life-changing magic of individuality. Of being imperfect beings with our beautiful quirks and traits and personalities.

Some of us are not really able to adhere to an always-tidy life ethic or living space. This is why self-acceptance comes in handy. Having the radical grace to accept that you’re doing the best you can with what you were given on any given day.

As the choice belongs to you and me whether we even want to change a certain behavior or can live with it.

Life is a dialectic state of being and doing. It’s not an “always” and “never” proposition of how to live. We can connect separate areas of our life with “and” as in “I’m neat at times and messy at other times.” Or even like this: “I’m happy and sad.”

Like a woman told me decades ago: “Perfection is a myth because it implies there can be no growth.” If we reached an ideal state that would be the end of our self-development.

Far better to believe that everyone’s work is in progress and that change, and growth are lifelong endeavors. Like I coined the approach decades ago the way to go is to give yourself a lifeline, not an impossible restrictive deadline.

Truly beauty lies in the imperfect. There’s a moral in the story of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the town of Pisa far off in Italy. The tower is leaning because multiple engineers designed and crafted each level of the tower over decades. Thus the building turned out leaning not straight.

Tourists flock to Pisa to see this magnificent imperfect structure that defies the logic of traditional architecture.

Ideas I give in this blog I seek to be a springboard for followers to consider. I intend that you can take my humble words as inspiration to find what works for you and to create your own methods too.

Get Organized Month

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New Year’s Eve is approaching quickly. The time to set a resolution that I think should be easy to achieve.

January is Get Organized Month all month. Per Google the focus is: Decluttering physical spaces, optimizing schedules, creating better habits, and boosting overall well-being. The themes are: Often ties into New Year’s resolutions, emphasizing fresh starts, productivity, and managing stress.

What better time than at the beginning of the year to Bring in the New Go out with the Old. I’ll write soon about ideas I have for getting organized in January.

The first article I ever published was in the Women’s Forum of the local newspaper in January 1990. The column I wrote was titled Time to Start Spring Cleaning.

I was the first person back then to make the connection that the beginning of the year was the ideal time to clear out the mental cobwebs in our head as well as the physical clutter in our home.

Clearing out the clutter in January and “cleaning up” our negative thoughts about what we’re capable of are habits that can serve us well at this time of year.

The last sentence of Time to Start Spring Cleaning was: And when you open up a can of chowder you might just discover a whole new you.

Cheers! To having the courage to express ourselves. To having the capacity to let go of what’s no longer serving us. To having a life unencumbered by the stuff weighing us down.

Having It Your Way

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In the 1980s Burger King advertised that you could “Have It Your Way” with their hamburgers.

The special sauce for living life today I dare say is deciding for ourselves what kind of lifestyle is the best one for us. It might not be what others tell us is the only “right” way to live.

This comes down to having the radical grace to accept that none of us is infallible or perfect. We won’t always do what’s in our best interest. The goal is to create a lifestyle that is optimized for our own version of health wealth and happiness.

My definition of health is not going to be the same as yours. Nor is your kind of healthy going to be the same as another person’s.

For a so-called expert (as opposed to a credentialed expert) to tell us there’s only one “right” way to be healthy is what I’m here to counter.

A recent secondhand experience got me to see that in the throes of illness there can be inside a person a version of wellness. However ill that person might be they can live resilient.

We need to expand what constitutes health when so many of us have chronic health conditions. Isn’t it possible to feel good despite with and because you’ re living with a medical condition?

In what ways can each of us feel good should we live with any kind of limitation on our health? This is an area I want to explore in this blog. With an array of ideas re: “how-to” have that full and robust life when in the throes of a health issue or other setback or kind of challenge.

Let’s face it: Who among us can really live up to any other person’s expectations let alone an expert’s? Each of us is our own expert on our life.

This is not an endorsement of going AMA or against medical advice that is sound and proven and we’re asked to follow. No–do what the doctor ordered when it has the potential to cure you or alleviate your condition.

What I’m against is trying to live up to an impossible standard re: what is the only right way to live our lives. I for one couldn’t work in a corporate office for example.

The same goes re: having those chips every so often. Being okay when we’re not up to par or are not feeling up to par.

In the current climate of “scarcity” it should be reassuring to know that we have enough and we are enough.

In this coming winter of hibernating and some of us having SAD or seasonal depression this comes down to figuring out where we want to use our energy and what we want to devote our time to.

Coming up a question I was asked that I think can be the springboard for finding out the right course of action. The question posed to me was a game-changer.

Filming a Slow Beat Production

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In an instant one day the words Slow Beat Production streamed into my head.

All along I realized that slowing down was the way to go. To zhush up this philosophy I call filming and living in the video of life a Slow Beat Production.

Decades ago I coined the term of giving yourself a lifeline not a restrictive impossible deadline by which to achieve a goal. I’ve failed at creating 5-year plans. Every 5 years I was tackling the same goals onto a new 5-year plan because I failed to achieve those outcomes in the first 5 years.

It took me 13 years to publish my first book. Over 5 years to accomplish a current objective.

Our lives are going by fast enough. The older we get we don’t have the kind of time to waste beating ourselves up or expecting ourselves to be perfect and do the right things always.

I have an issue with using the word “right” to describe an action or behavior. In a coming post I’ll detail the distinction I make as to why there’s no one “right” way to think feel live act love and dress.

Living our lives in a slow beat is called for when yes we want to get the things we want to have that we’re supposed to get. I’ll refer followers to the book I reviewed in here years ago: Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions.

The guide is a 90-day action plan for replacing an unhealthy habit with a new behavior. Ninety days isn’t really a long time. It’s far more viable to embark on a 90-day practice then to fall prey to a magazine article that tells you how to: Drop One Dress Size by Tuesday.

Again the ultimate aim is to reduce the pressure we have to conform, whether that’s following along in having a societally-approved ideal weight, an acceptable lifestyle, or a standard operating procedure for how to interact with others to name a few.

It comes down to self-respect. If we can’t live with ourselves when we wake up in the morning that’s when it’s time to change. This is why I said Goodbye, Chips.

What others think of us should be of no concern. Our best lives are calling and are within reach. This life is attainable when we have the courage to think for ourselves about the kind of life we want to have.

Avanti! Forward!

Choosing Sanity Over Vanity

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In here I’ll detail in this post further thoughts on a sane approach to consuming food and drink. Choosing sanity over vanity is what matters. Instead of caring how we look to others it’s healthier to think about whether we can live with ourselves at the end of the day.

It was the singer P!nk in a magazine interview easily a decade ago who told the reporter that if you feel bad about what you’re eating then you’re swallowing guilt.

Indulging in food or drink that we label a “good” or “bad” item has the tendency to make us think that we’re good or bad people for eating or drinking it.

Let’s face things so often what we choose to do is because we care how we appear to others. Taking the pressure off happens when we decide that the only person we need to impress or to have approve of us is ourselves.

My days of eating bags of chips are over. I stopped doing this for me.

What I’m saying and I’ve said this repeatedly before in one of the other blogs too is that whittling yourself down to skin and bones to attract others is what’s not ideal.

Are we really counting calories for our health? Are we choosing and using what to eat because the food improves our mood or does it just conform to what we think is healthy?

There’s a ton of products that the editors of the Nutrition Action newsletter expose as not really health-boosting.

Far better to indulge in a real food treat like a pastry every so often. Not bolt for a drink that’s supposed to give us energy or nutrients.

My goal is to share stories and teach others to be well as I’ve written before. Wellness is not the absence of illness. It’s not unachievable to be well when you expand the limits to the definition of wellness.

The online dictionary defines wellness as: the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal. Within the limits we have with our bodies and minds we can strive to be in good health.

This starts when you and I ask ourselves: “What does good health look like for me? How can I get there? What do I need to do to sustain this lifestyle?”

Having the radical grace to be flexible and adaptable and open to change when this routine no longer fits our life. Just going easier on ourselves when we slip up or fall down here and there. Understanding that most setbacks are only temporary. Picking ourselves up and recommitting to the path we chose.

In the coming blog entry I’m going to talk in more detail about the ethic of going in a steady rhythm.

Breathe Mediterranean Diet Edition

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Breathe magazine has out a Mediterranean Diet edition. Though it costs $14.99 I think the issue is worth getting.

For the article like Glimmers of Hope that instructs readers to cue ourselves for “glimmers” instead of focusing on triggers. Glimmers are the experiences that give us joy peace and positive feelings.

Plus the Buon Appetito! feature that shows readers how to set the table for a communal meal like Italians do. Insieme is our word for together.

Really all the articles in this Breathe issue are worth reading.

Pots of Love talks about how cooking can be a valid form of therapy. Talking about using a food journal to jot down ideas about the recipes you’re making and what you think of them and how to improvise new recipes with the ingredients.

One suggestion that I’ve taken to heart for years so far is to set the table for cheer. At the start of each season to change the tablecloth and use a different color mug to drink water from.

I’ll end here with this quote:

A tavola non s’invecchia – At the table, one does not grow old.

Georgia Ede MD Disclaimer

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Dr. Ede has reported that patients who change their diet as she instructs with the Quiet Keto have better mental health.

However buried in her guide Dr. Ede states that most of her patients who stopped their Keto diet had their psychiatric symptoms come back. Nor can everyone reduce or eliminate their psych medication on the Keto diet Dr. Ede proposes either.

The number-one thing is to control blood sugar and insulin levels which this diet should do according to Dr. Ede. This MD believes that keeping on a whole foods ketogenic diet for life or long-term should be safe. Following her Quiet Keto diet could counteract medication side effects like weight gain and high blood sugar.

The caveat the catch is that you must remain on the Quiet Keto diet and not stop it. With the Mediterranean Diet there’s no effect if you stop using this food plan.

These two diets should be examined with professional guidance for a person’s individual needs.

I reported here on these two diets to give information that might help followers. It appears everywhere I go I act as a librarian outside of my job–giving people information they can use to have a better life.

Coming up one habit I’ve adopted. Then a dive into new recipes I’ve created using a cookbook and the Eating Well special edition New Mediterranean Diet magazine.

Georgia Ede MD Nutrition Advice

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Georgia Ede MD Nutrition Advice

It’s not as simple as choosing from the food items Dr. Ramsey lists and calling it a day. With Dr.
Ede’s recommendations you need to calculate your personal macronutrient amounts. Then adhere
to eating only certain foods in certain ways.

On the Keto Diet you are allowed to have a specific amount of carbohydrates like starting at 20
grams a day. Dr. Ede recommends ketone monitoring as part of this diet.

Dr. Ede has reported that patients who change their diet this way have better mental health. It’s best to buy her book or check it out of the library. There are specific rules as to what to eat
how much and how to eat (cooked versus raw).

You start out with a Quiet Paleo diet and transfer to the Keto diet.

Customize carbohydrates:
Carbohydrates on Quiet Keto come from fruits and vegetables.

Quiet Keto Food List:
Meat, seafood, poultry, and eggs.
Non-starchy Vegetables:
Lettuces like iceberg, romaine, Bibb, Boston, green leaf, red leaf, oak leaf, Batavia, and
butterhead.

Fruits:
Avocado, olives, squashes: zucchini, yellow squash, summer squash, pumpkin, and spaghetti
squash, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, lemons, and limes
Crucifers cooked only and limited to one serving per day as in:
Arugula, bok choy, broccoli,, broccolini, broccoli rabe, Brussels sprouts, all kinds of cabbage,
cauliflower, collard greens, kale mustard greens, radish, Swiss chard, turnip, watercress.

This ends my review of the Dueling Doctors and Their Diets.