Balanced Life Skills Martial Arts

This photo and comment is from a  friend of mine that I believe says a great deal about what we eat and allow our children to eat.

What does this picture tell you? My doctor has had this “processed food” on her counter ever since 2010 and 2011 respectively. I asked her why she had it out, she stated “to show people what they are putting into their bodies”. This is man-made “processed food”, not real food. Over time real food will decay, grow mold and produce a decomposing odor. This “processed food” has not done any of that, matter of fact it has kept it’s original size, shape and texture. Your body has to work harder to breakdown and digest this stuff over real food. Since I’ve seen this, I have not had any fast food.

Will you promote good health and stop eating fast food, processed food or anything that is not good for your health?

Teaching character and life skills to students

Want to eat more healthy?  Try some of these suggestions of things to eliminate from your diet or at least severely reduce to almost never eating.

1. Soda – yes that includes “diet” soda too.  Too much sugar and chemicals.  Artificial sweeteners are chemicals too that still fakes your body into releasing insulin and store fat.

2. Bread / gluten – your digestive system does not process these foods in an efficient  manner, they easily pile on the calories without much nutritional value. (slow down on the pasta, white rice etc..)

3. Sugar – It is addictive and the more you eat the more you want.

4. Alcohol – ill effects on your liver, sugar content is high, and beer high in gluten.  Then there is the toxic nature of alcohol in general.

5. Dairy – Unless you are under the age of 2 your body does not have the tools to process the lactose.

6. Meat – Reduce or eliminate will help your digestive system.

Bottom line:  The way most Americans eat is 60% processed foods, 30% meat,  5% potatoes/rice and 5% vegetables.  Think about going a different route.  How about 60-70% vegetables, 20-30% meat and 10% fats (nuts, seeds avocados etc..)  Or even better reduce meat to 0% and focus on water based / plant based foods.

We have noted previously that our body is 70% water and so we need to eat foods that replace that  water naturally.  Want to be more healthy, lose weight and have much more energy – EAT HEALTHY.

Pancreatic cancer affects roughly 1 in 65 men and women.  Luciano Pavaraotti, Patrick Swayze, Chief Justice Ruth Ginsburg, and Steve Jobs all lost their life from pancreatic cancer.  In the last week it was reported by the “respected” Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, as saying that eating 1.8 ounces of processed meat every day — the equivalent to one sausage or two rashers of bacon — increases the risk by 19 percent, and the risk goes up if a person eats more.

In regard to the risks for pancreatic cancer smoking is one of the worst, increasing the chance of this deadly disease by 74 percent.  But even eating 100g a day of processed meat ( a small burger) increases the risk by 38% while 150g a day raises it by 57 percent.

Looking at what we eat is important for our health.  We have just completed the holiday season when many of us do not eat in our normal fashion.  But now is a good time to revisit our eating habits and make adjustments to better our health, short term and long term.

Teaching character and life skills to students

This post is especially for our children, helping them to respect the differences that they can see when meeting someone new, but as an adult we can examine how we act or react when we meet someone new too.  It is said that when meeting someone new we draw a conclusion about that person within 10 seconds of meeting them, whether they are equal to, greater than or less than ourselves.

Having said that we have all heard the expression, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”  Teaching our children not to look at someones clothes, how they look or act and decide if we are going to like them or not.  Some people are going to be taller or shorter, darker skin or lighter skin, blue eyes or brown eyes, dress in one way or a different way.  They may be in a wheelchair or able to walk, have a happy disposition or there may be reasons that they are not as happy.  We do not know them without getting to know who they are, what they like, and how they will behave when they are with friends.   It is only after we have spent some time with them and see how they will treat us and what we have in common as well as what we can learn from them – before we know if we like them or not.

Rejecting someone as a friend because of the way they look- is not showing acceptance and may leave us with fewer friends.

Teaching character and life skills to students

One of the hardest things to accept for many is themselves.  Have you ever noticed how hard we can be on ourselves?  We come down on ourselves for not being good enough, strong enough, organized enough or something.  Usually we are comparing ourselves to others who excel in an activity that we would like to improve on. Is it really fair to talk to ourselves that way?

Lets start with questions to ourselves like:

What is something that I like about myself?

What is unique about me?

What is one thing I am really good at?

What is one thing I enjoy doing?

Learning to accept and appreciate who we are, what our strengths are, and what we enjoy doing allows us to accept that others are very good at other activities that are not our strong points.  When we see others as ‘strong’ in some areas, we will be more willing to accept them for those areas of strength.

It is important as we work on creating a culture of peace in our homes and community to accept ourselves and others for our strengths knowing that both of us are OK.

Is it a mistake that has been made, or have not responded appropriately? What we can learn about acceptance from jazz.

What are we thankful for?  Out of everyone’s mouth come the ‘standard’ answers of health, family and friends.  Sometimes we think even deeper and we will talk about those who have done something for us, we may talk about a teacher or mentor, or we may have an extraordinary experience that has fundamentally changed who we are.  Have you had one of those experiences, where you see or have an experience that makes you think differently?  Maybe you or someone you love came close to death, or your touched by a story you hear or see that calls you to a different action than your normal activity.

This morning I received an email from an individual whom I have studied his work for a short time, Gary Ryan Blair.  He suggest that we practice gratitude.  Now that by itself is not a new thought, as I have mentioned previously, starting each day off with the question, What am I grateful for? is a great way to start your day on a positive note.  But Mr. Blair suggest these ways of practicing gratitude and giving thanks for being alive is:

Accept 100% responsibility for your life Behave like a gentleman and lady, Commit your life to excellence, Deliver exceptional results, Exceed expectations, Focus on solutions, Gracefully age, Honor your commitments, Inspire through your actions, Joyfully embrace each day, Keep your promises, Leave a lasting legacy, Model best practices, Necessitate high, uniform, ethical standards, Open your mind to new ideas, Passionately pursue your dreams, Quickly solve problems, Reciprocate and pay it forward, Showcase your talents, Talk lovingly, Undertake challenging tasks, Vote and defend democracy, Welcome and embrace change, Zealously do what is right, good and noble.

As you look at these suggestions think of gratitude as an action item and not a passive statement.  If you are not sure, check out those that have less than, and who seem to find a way to make a difference and to use what they have to benefit others.  Then Practice Gratefulness.