Eating Healthy in the New Year

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.

 

Thoughts While Home

This week has been crazy and awesome.  As I sit down to write about it, I realize one of the major differences in my life here and my life training in Wudang. There, when I train my mind is either off or focused on what I am doing, and outside of that I have fairly few demands on my attention and I have plenty of time to reflect and plan. So writing a blog happens fairly naturally.

Here at home, I work at an architecture firm, I teach, and I do demonstrations and talks about Wudang. There are always demands on my attention, and reflection often has to wait. So while in Wudang, the physical side of my training seems my prime concern, being home is a training ground for my internal art. This is where the theory meets reality.

That said, I had a wild but fun week. Thursday night I attended a Chinese embassy celebration of the Chinese New Year at the Meridian Center in DC. Definitely one of the neatest evenings I have had in a while. There were a lot of diplomats there, a beautiful musical performance, and two Chinese art exhibits, one of woodblock prints and one of modern paintings on porcelain. I was there with my kungfu sister who is working hard to establish avenues for the sharing  of Wudang culture and wisdom with D.C. and the U.S.

Friday was spent at the Bullis School in Potomac. I did a collaborative demonstration with two Shaolin monks. Of course, they were masters and I am still a student, so it was quite an honor to share a stage with them. I really enjoyed meeting them and other amazing members of the kungfu community in the D.C. area. It was wonderful to meet other people who dream dreams like my own.

 

The Rewards Are On the Journey – Not Reaching the Destination

It is the journey to black belt – it is not the belt, stripe, or the trophy that will bring us happiness. If we believe that when we reach this goal or get this accomplished – then we will be happy -it has never failed me to see that we will be disappointed. The reason is, we are tied to the results rather than the experience. Living in the moment we are in, learning as we go, appreciating everything that happens to us – even if we consider it as bad fortune. The reason is that everything we have or do not have, everything we get or do not get, has the ability to make us better individuals – even if we do not understand how or why at this time.

Parents especially, as much as we want the best and everything for our child, as much as it hurts to see our children not get what they want so bad, it is a part of life that if we learn to accept as part of the journey and learn from – we will enjoy the wanted results even more when they come.

We live in a society that demands results NOW and many are unwilling to accept waiting. But in reality that is not how life works – if we want happiness. Enjoy the journey to black belt, enjoy your experience learning anything new, yes even in school. In the end everything will be more enjoyable, each minute, hour, day, years and life. In the end when the goal is reached, whatever it might be, we will look back on the struggles and disappointments as learning experiences and those are the things that create our very best character.

I enjoyed this clip from a movie that demonstrates what we can learn:

 

Life Skills: Health – Why We Should Avoid Processed Meats

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.

 

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Life Skills: Health-The Definition

Teaching character and life skills to students

Each month we define and discuss a word of character development and life skill with all of our students.

This month the word is Health and will be defined this way.

Young students: Health means: “My body and brain are working well!”

Older students: Health means: Well being in mind, body and spirit.

Here are the worksheets for our students:

Health Worksheet Tiger Tots

Health Worksheet 5-6

Health Worksheet 7-12

Health Worksheet Teens : Adults

If you would like to see how we will talk about this subject with our students please follow our discussions here during the month of January or come in and TRY A CLASS.

 

January Qigong Seminar

January 9th through February 14th, I am pleased to be offering a seminar in Qigong at Balanced Life Skills. Qigong has been one of my favorite discoveries in the course of my martial arts education, and I am always excited to share my love of it with others.

What is Qigong? Imagine the practice of martial arts as a line. One one end is fighting, and on the other end is purely health oriented exercise. Qigong would fall near one end of the line, and it might look like this:Literally “Chi Work,” Qigong is a kind of moving meditation. In a series of dynamic poses combining breathing, flexibility, strength, and mental focus, it seeks to nourish the internal health of the body. It is adaptable to the level of the student; a sedentary newcomer and a conditioned athlete will both find challenge and growth.

There are uncountable permutations within this broad category of exercise, each with its own focus, theory, tradition, and practitioners. In Wudang, I have learned a few different Qigong practices. My favorite is Five Element Qigong.

In the seminar this year, I will be focusing on Five Element Qigong, but will range as well into other aspects of my own practice that have informed and enhanced the experience of Qigong.

The seminar will be held, January 9th – February 14th,  on:

Mondays 5:0o PM and 7:00 PM

Tuesdays 11:00 AM

Students should plan to attend at least one hour-long session a week, but are welcome and encouraged to attend additional classes for more guided repetition. Those interested are welcome to try a class in the first week for free. Seminar fee= $10/week