Hungry For Change

I'm sick as a dog and just hate it!  This flu is ugly.
When I start to cough and can't stop it feels like I could throw up all my insides!
I hardly ever get sick... but I take full responsibility for it.  It is my fault.
And I am beginning to see how far I have drifted so far off a healthy course.  Today I am starting a three day cleansing diet to purge the toxins out of my body.  Shirley just went to the store for fresh rich green vegetables, parsley, broccoli, kale, brussel sprouts, celery and such.

The good that has come out of all this grief is I have watched a couple of really good documentaries about food on Netflix.  Here is a trailer to Hungry For Change... a film by James Colquhoun and Laurentine ten Bosch.  It impacted us so much we watched it twice... and the second time I took notes.  Another similar film we watched is "Vegucated."  They both helped us.



Here are 13 quotes from "Hungry For Change."

1.  "One-third of all women and one-quarter of all men in the USA are on a diet." -Colorado University

2.  "More than 60 billion is spent each year on diet and weight loss products in the US." Market Data Report

3.  "Food marketers lie to you... they tell you their foods will make you sexy and skinny and cool... but in reality you are going to be obese and miserable and sick."

 4.  "Up to two-thirds of those on a diet will regain more weight than when they started."

Diets are built with failure in them.  What we need is to reprogram our mind to a new lifestyle and know how some of the processed foods we have been eating are like poison to us.

5.  "Sugar is the cocaine of the food world."

6.  "We need to realize that sugar is a drug just like Heroin." -Dr. Christine Northrup

7.  "When you see the high content of sugar in most kids cereals you might just as well roll up your kids sleeve and shoot in the heroin... because it is the same." --Dr. Christine Northrup

8.  "Fat free usually means loaded with sugar."

9.  "It is not fat that makes you fat.  It is sugar that makes you fat."

10.  "If you are upset don't eat." (Good luck with that one!)

11.  "Sleep more.  Exercise more.  Laugh more." written on a post it note.

(I learned if stress is costing you sleep you can gain gain two pounds in retained water.  So I am going to focus on sleeping more.  I guess three hours a night is not enough.)

12.  "Whatever you hold in your mind on a consistent basis is exactly what you will experience in your life." -Anthony Robbins   This is about visualizing what you want to look like.  And there is a great part of the movie that deals with "Food and Beauty."

13.  "I am by nature a dealer in words, and words are the most powerful drug known to humanity." -Rudyard Kipling 1865- 1936


When Shirley read my list she was quick to remind me of Mark Twain's famous quote...

"Be careful reading health books.  You may die of a misprint." 

To see more Thursday 13 click here.

Gratitude... is Beautiful

Today I am grateful for friends and relatives who send me cool stuff.  In the little movie below you will see several things we should be grateful for that we never even give a thought about.

Before Christmas my cousin Janice sent me a link to a short movie that really spoke to me.  It has lots of time lapse photography and awesome photos... and a great message.  Can you spare six minutes?  It is so worth the time and inspiration.   I dream that some day I can make a short movie like this one.




This past week as we travelled back to Canada we reconnected with some friends we have not seen in over 22 years.  Nyren Compton taught our kids at Okanagan Adventist Academy in Kelowna, BC.  We visited over tea... and kind of caught up on parts of our lives.  Chris has started a new business... making gift cookies... and Nyren is helping with the marketing... they call it I Love Comptons.  Click and check it out.

I love good cookies and never can get too many home made cookies... and Chris has mastered this to a fine art.  We wish them all the very best as they grow their new enterprise.

Today we are grateful for Shirley's mother... who is just recovering from pneumonia.  When we decided to come here first before going home we thought she may be on her last legs... she had problems more than pneumonia.  Arriving in town last night we went straight to see her first... and she amazed us with her bright smile and warm welcome.  She never coughed once... and told us she was feeling much better.  She looked a miracle to me.

This afternoon she played scrabble with Shirley, Bobbie and Uncle Ben... and beat them all royally... complete with a 7-letter word!  Go figure.  It looks like she is pretty much back to normal.  PTL!

So tomorrow we are heading home again.

2013 -My Word for the New Year

What an incredible world we  live in!

I took a little walk this morning behind our community.

This is my first photo of 2013... a little dusting of snow on Mt. Lemon behind Tucson... and between the cactus and the mountains are the red tile roofs of Rancho del Lago.

On my walk I did some more thinking about my new motto or "word" for the New Year.

"Safety."

Which really is stronger in two words.  "Safety First."

This year I want to make every decision after looking thru the prism of "Safety... first."

I have really appreciated the perspective that Robert Kiyosaki has given in the three books I have read so far... Rich Dad, Poor Dad... Unfair Advantage... and Guide to Investing.  In his discussion about risk and safety... and the way to reduce risk in investments is thru financial literacy.  The more financial education you have the more intelligent decisions you will make.

That does not mean one can ever eliminate all risk... but the more cards you know are stacked in your favour the less probability of a disaster.  There will always be ups and downs... but the right choice should yield more ups.

Safety First means do your "due diligence." Look before you leap.

Safety First means making sure the footing under the ladder is secure... and scaffolding is anchored.

Safety First means living by the rules in every aspect of life.

It means driving carefully.  Working carefully.  Playing safely.  Eating properly and exercising regularly to keep, or get into top shape.

Safety First means living a living a life of balance... mentally, physically, financially and spiritually.

I believe and trust in God... and will spend some time every day with Him.

Safety First always has your insurance paid up... with the proper coverage.

One of my past mentors died this past year.  Zig Ziglar was an author, a motivational speaker and a devoted Christian who I met at a Century 21 Convention in Edmonton in the mid-80's.  (In a past life we owned a C-21 office in Peachland, BC.)

I want to conclude my New Years ramblings with one of his many quotes which I committed to memory.

"You are what you are and you are where you are because of what has gone into your mind.  You can change what you are and you can change where you are by changing what goes into your mind." -Zig Ziglar

This year I plan to learn a lot more and will read a lot more... and watch a lot less TV.  I am going to change what I put into my mind.  A month without TV waiting to get the satellite dish set up helped me read two books!  Let's see how many I read in 2013.

"Rich people have small TVs and big libraries, and poor people have small libraries and big TVs." -Zig Ziglar

Wishing you a fantastic year in 2013... and 13 is not an unlucky number unless you make it so.