8 Weeks to Optimum Health: WEEK 2

"The eight-week program consists of small steps that build on each other until, by the time you complete it, you have laid the foundation for healthy living. You can then decide how much of the program you want to maintain on a permanent basis. It's all about changing behavior. You are probably not addicted to drugs, but you may have other habits that are keeping you from experiencing optimum health." -Andrew Weil, author of 8 Weeks To Optimum Health

I found this book on my mothers bookshelf... or it found me. - M-Z

WEEK TWO. (of Andrew Weil's Eight-Week program)
Congratulations! You are about to embark on an exciting and healthy adventure of restyling your life in order to attain optimum health.

Projects: 

-Find out where your drinking water comes from. In the meantime, buy bottled water. (drinking water is one of the major sources of environmental toxins that can harm your healing system; fortunately, it is the one that you can do something about.) Dr. Weil go in depth about this topic. I recommend reading up on the chemicals found in our water and how drinking water in U.S. is increasingly become a health risk. He also offers suggestions how to purify your water.

Diet:


-Again eat fish at least once this week and broccoli twice.
-Increase consumption of whole grains (excellent source of fiber, which is generally deficient in our diets) The best way to get more fiber is to eat more veggies & fruits & food containing whole grain.
-Try a soy bean product from a natural food store (For centuries the Chinese and Japanese have cultivated soy as a dietary staple, an excellent source of protein that can be turned into multi udinous edibles.) Soy beans are better than animal foods in several way (look up the benefits of soy)
-Try Japanese or Chinese Green tea instead of usual black tea or coffee

Supplements:
-Start taking one capsule a day of mixed carotene's with breakfast. (Should contain 25,000 IU of betacarontene along with lycopene. (Great cancer-protective value)

Exercise:
-Increase your daily walk to fifteen minutes. (Try to make your walks brisk enough to increase you breathing and heart rate) Remember, this is the best all around conditioning treatment you can give your body.


Mental/Spiritual:
-Visit your favorite place in nature. Spend as much time as there, doing nothing in particular, just feeling the energy. (Walking or sitting quietly in a natural setting is a simple form of meditation, an antidote for being too much in our heads, too focused on our thoughts and emotions)
-Try a one-day "news fast". Do not read, watch, or listen to any news for a day. (I do not want you to become uninformed about the state of the world, but I note paying attention to news commonly results in anxiety, rage, and other emotional states that probably impede the healing system.)
-Continue with breath observation for five minutes a day and add a second breathing exercise.
("If you could only tell people to do one thing that would give them greater access to spontaneous healing, what would it be?" I never hesitate in answering. "Work with your breathe!" -Dr.Weil)

*Recommendations that fall under this heading are most important.



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Good luck, have fun, see ya on Sunday !

Love,

Maryam

8 Weeks To Optimum Health: Week One Concluded

"The eight-week program consists of small steps that build on each other until, by the time you complete it, you have laid the foundation for healthy living. You can then decide how much of the program you want to maintain on a permanent basis. It's all about changing behavior. You are probably not addicted to drugs, but you may have other habits that are keeping you from experiencing optimum health." -Andrew Weil,  author of 8 Weeks To Optimum Health

WEEK ONE: CONCLUDED (of Andrew Weil's Eight-Week program)

Congratulations! You have completed week one.

I apologize for the delay and inconsistency. Every Sunday, from here on out, I will post weekly summaries (for the following week) of challenges/project/exercises until we have completed the 8 week program.

Projects:
-throw out all oils other than olive oil

NOTES:
Simple task.
I have always known that olive oil is the best to use.
Olive oil, of course, is the most expensive of all oils. However, if you are avoiding using large amounts of oil, price won't really be issue because you are not buying it in abundance. 
My mother uses vegetable oil... I grew up using vegetable oil...I cook with vegetable oil.  
Vegetable oil, in comparison, seems to be a step down from olive oil, yet, a step up from the rest.

-get rid of any margarine, solid vegetable shortenings, and products made with them
Umm yea, this was hard, at first thought.
Turned out to be pretty simple.
I was just conditioned to eat butter with my pancakes... not necessary.

-throw out any artificial sweeteners, any products w/ artificial coloring
I never drank diet soda or used artificial sweeteners.
Now, the artificial coloring challenge?? ... I was shocked at a lot of things once I became conscious of reading labels.
A lot... A lot of food is made with artificial coloring. Had to avoid a lot of my old favorites trying to apply this rule.

-start reading food labels! Do not buy products whose labels list more chemicals than recognizable ingredients.
Forward consciousness at its finest !!
READ LABELS !!!! What in the HELL are they putting in our food???????

Diet: 
-Have fresh broccoli twice this week.
This was easy. Broccoli is one of my favorite foods.

-Eat salmon at least once this week.
Another simple task for me. I became a pescatarian in July of 2012. Fish is all I eat.


Supplements:
Start taking vitamin C. 1,000-2,000 milligrams with breakfast, dinner, and at bedtime.
I had been taking vitamin C. I wasn't taking the recommended dosage and I wasn't taking it daily.
I did not know humans have lost the ability to make vitamin C and need it every day from a dietary source.

Exercise:
Try to walk ten minutes a day five days this week.

Simple. I walk/jog two miles everyday to the beach.

Mental/Spiritual:





Think about your own experiences of healing. Make a list of illnesses or injuries or problems you have recovered from in the past two years. Note down anything you did to speed the healing process.

*The mental/spiritual challenges are by far my favorite part of the eight-week program.

Illnesses:
Heartbreak: Nothing but patience & positivity
Breast Cyst/Tumor: A change in diet... specifically caffeine.

Begin to practice observing your breathing for five minutes every day.
This changed my life. I can't begin to explain how. Observing your breathing is therapeutic...its nothing short of meditation.

Buy some flowers to keep in your home, where you can enjoy them.
I did one better.... I picked some flowers. :)

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*Week one went extremely well for me. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had already been practicing a lot of the week one recommendations/projects/challenges in my day to day life.

See ya next week !

Maryam-Z

bonne anne

Holiday 2012.

New years eve... such a magical night. The streets: cold and wet. The holiday lights decorating the downtown buildings reflect on the pavement as the last of the Christmas snow melts on the ground. The cold wind blows right through your sheer cranberry colored tights making you clutch tighter to your faux fur coat... a coat only to be worn on such a magical night. Drunk patrons pass by you in their party best,  little black dresses, long elegant gowns, red lipstick, party hats, blazers, and high heels. Salute ! Oh, New Years Eve! Bubbly champagne in tall flutes.
A night so magical that any mistakes, any hurt, any burdens... are erased at the stroke of midnight. When you wake tomorrow... or "later this morning" in last nights make-up, last nights party dress, and next to the one(s) you love...you get a brand new start... a brand new year. bonne anne.

SHOP elusive for your holiday and every day vintage threads ! 

Happy Sunday !

Positive vibes this morning.

God In The Trees

     You are fortunate if you love trees, and especially the wild ones growing where the Great Creative Force placed them, and independent of man's care. For all things we call "wild" or "natural" are nearer the Infinite Mind than those which have been enslaved, artificialized and hampered by man. Being nearer the Infinite they have in them the more perfect Infinite Force and Thought. That is why when you are in the midst of what is wild and natural--in the forest or mountains, where every trace of man's works is left behind you feel an indescribable exhilaration and freedom that you do not realize elsewhere.

      You are fortunate when you grow to a live, tender, earnest love for the wild trees, animals and birds, and recognize them all as coming from and built of the same mind and spirit as your own, and able also to give you something very valuable in return for the love you give them. It is felt by the spirit of the tree. You represent a part and belonging of the Infinite Mind. The tree represents another part and belonging of the Infinite Mind. It has its share of life, thought and intelligence. The tree has an organization like your own in many respects. It has for blood its sap. It has a circulation. It has for skin its bark. It has for lungs its leaves. It must have its food. It draws nourishment from soil, air and sun. It adapts itself to circumstances. The oak growing in exposed situations roots itself more firmly in the soil to withstand the tempest. The pines growing thickly together take little root, for they depend on numbers to break the wind's force. 

     The tree is then literally one of God's thoughts. That thought is worth our study. It contains some wisdom we have not yet got hold of. We want that wisdom. We want to make it a part of ourselves. We want it, because real wisdom or truth brings us power. We want power to give us better bodies, sounder bodies, healthier bodies. We want entire freedom from sickness. We want lighter hearts and happier minds. We want a new life and a new pleasure in living for each day. We want our bodies to grow lighter, not heavier with advancing years. We want a religion which will give us certainty instead of hopes and theories. We want a Deity it is simply impossible to doubt. We want to feel the Infinite Mind in every atom of our beings. We want with each day to feel a new pleasure in living and, commencing where we left off yesterday, to find something new in what we might have thought to be "old" and worn out yesterday. When we come into the domain of the Infinite Mind and are ever drawing more of that mind to us and making it a part of us, nothing can seem "flat, stale and unprofitable."

     If you can look on trees as fit only for lumber and firewood you get very little life from them. They feel then toward you as you would feel towards a person who regarded you as a thing without mind or sense and fit only to he sawed into lumber or firewood.

-Prentice Mulford, author of Thoughts Are Things

8 Weeks to Optimum Health: Week One

"The eight-week program consists of small steps that build on each other until, by the time you complete it, you have laid the foundation for healthy living. You can then decide how much of the program you want to maintain on a permanent basis. It's all about changing behavior. You are probably not addicted to drugs, but you may have other habits that are keeping you from experiencing optimum health." -Andrew Weil,  author of 8 Weeks To Optimum Health

I found this book on my mothers bookshelf... or it found me.  - M-Z

WEEK ONE. (of Andrew Weil's Eight-Week program)
Congratulations! You are about to embark on an exciting and healthy adventure of restyling your life in order to attain optimum health.

Projects:

The Pantry & Refrigerator Make-Over

-throw out all oils other than olive oil (The best all around oil to use is olive oil. Olive oil contains mostly monounsaturated fat, which is much better for our bodies than either polyunsaturated or saturated fat.)

-get rid of any margarine, solid vegetable shortenings, and products made with them (the process of hardening vegetable oils to create solid spreads increases the advantage over butter in the realm of cardiovascular friendliness. If it comes to choice between butter and margarine, always take butter.)

-throw out any artificial sweeteners, any products w/ artificial coloring (there is not a shred of evidence that the availability of artificial, noncaloric sweeteners has helped anyone lose weight. You are much better off eating moderate amounts of sugar than any of these unnatural products.)

-start reading food labels! Do not buy products whose labels list more chemicals than recognizable ingredients.

Diet: 
-Have fresh broccoli twice this week. (one of the most healthiest members of the cabbage family.)
-Eat salmon at least once this week. (excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, special fats that have beneficial effects on many body functions.)

*the dietary changes recommended in the eight-week program are intended to move you in the direction of eating less fat.

Supplements:
Start taking vitamin C. 1,000-2,000 milligrams with breakfast, dinner, and at bedtime.

*Only human beings , other primates, and a few other species have lost this ability and need to get the vitamin every day from dietary sources, principally fresh fruits and vegetables.

Exercise:

Try to walk ten minutes a day five days this week. (Walking is the best exercise. It will satisfy all your exercise requirements throughout your life, even into old age.)

*Exercise is the key component of a healthy lifestyle. 

Mental/Spiritual:

Think about your own experiences of healing. Make a list of illnesses or injuries or problems you have recovered from in the past two years. Note down anything you did to speed the healing process. (Illness in the physical body is often the result of imbalance in the mind or spiritual realm.)

Begin to practice observing your breathing for five minutes every day. (The very simplest technique of breath work is simply to observe it, to do nothing other than follow the breath cycle with your observing mind, without trying to influence it in any way.)

Buy some flowers to keep in your home, where you can enjoy them. (Flowers manifest the beauty and wonder of nature and delight the senses. It feels good to be around them. They raise our spirits.)

*Recommendations that fall under this heading are most important. 

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Good luck, have fun, see ya on Sunday !

Love,

Maryam

Where Do Wild Horses Roam?

Do you see her posing for me? - M-Z

2012 Dacula, Georgia