I suppose just about everybody has seen this TV show on the National Geographic channel. Cesar Millan, who rehabilitates dogs and trains owners, says that the three things a dog needs are discipline, exercise, and affection. It’s the simplest discussion I’ve ever heard of a dog’s needs and also the most effective one I’ve ever heard. But one day last month, I got to thinking how this simple formula might work for humans, too. People are currently going to Hell in a handbasket, and what’s the major culprit? Why, TV, of course! People are becoming sedentary, gaining weight, getting deeply depressed, and craving more sleep. Could that be because TV does not provide exercise, discipline or affection?
I remember one episode of THE DOG WHISPERER in which a woman was walking her dog that had been out of control, and the dog was doing fine, but the woman was acting as if the dog was about to go back into his negative behavior any second. Cesar told her, "If you live in the past, you get what the past gives you. Live in the now." Dogs are not as complicated as humans. They tend to get screwed up only if humans complicate their lives.
Professional football players know this. You see it every day, when a defensive lineman beats an offensive player off the ball and sacks the quarterback. Then, on the very next play, the defensive player gets "pancaked" by an offensive lineman. Each moment in a good football game is unique. It’s the stuff life is made of. And if you think about it, NOW is all we can change, so, in a sense, it’s all we have. And that mentality is the nutshell of professional sports. Case in point: Mike Singletary, interim coach of the San Francisco Forty-niners, who was asked by reporters about his season, a tough one in which he had to deal with a whole plethora of football woes. He said, "I don’t interpret anything as...really good or really bad. I think the most important thing is that I just continue to stay focused." Evidently, dogs and Mike Singletary understand this living in the now thing better than most of us.
But what is it that goes on in most people’s lives? Instead of focusing on better health, they focus on superficial things. Like losing that weight so you can look good in a swim suit. And, of course, losing the weight in the quickest way possible. It’s no wonder there are so many weight loss fads out there, and people are giving up on weight loss every day. So what’s the alternative? I say it is exercise, discipline and affection, the same as for dogs. It’s a simple formula, but that doesn’t mean it is easy, or that it will happen in the shake of St. Bernard’s tail.
I went to the doctor for semi-annual check-up the other day, and discovered that I lost ten pounds since my last check-up. That satisfies me. But the thing I need most in my efforts to get healthy is positive feedback from other humans. Not quite the "affection" we ascribe to what dogs need, but the communicating together about our successes, minimizing the effect of our failures, and living in the now.
In future blog postings, I will discuss with you the role of failure in an exercise and nutrition program, and I will also share actual conversations from a "today, on the trail to better health" thread on an actual Internet forum. This constant feedback, this "affection" if you will, completes the triad for humans.
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 13
Friday, January 2
GETTING (RE)STARTED
Essentially four groups of people come to this blog: 1. those who are juicing, 2. those who are thinking about juicing, 3. those who started juicing at one time and quit, and 4. those who are interested in the general topics of exercise, nutrition and health. My aim is address all four groups with a single topic. To see a difference in your health as a result of juicing, follow these steps:
1. Buy a juicer. Easy enough. But the question remains: which one? a top of the line one or the cheapest one you can find? The answer to that question depends on how serious you are. You know yourself best. If you think you may not stick with it because it’s only a fad, buy a cheap one. If you stick with it for months as opposed to weeks, you can upgrade to a more efficient and durable model. I first started juicing when “Juiceman” Jay Korda was promoting it. That would
have been sometime in the late 70s or early 80s. I was impressed by Korda’s knowledge of juicing and its benefits, but not enough to order one of his machines. Then one day at COSTCO, I saw a cheap juicer that I paid only $59 for. I kept that juicer until just a few months ago. It was at that time that I decided I must be serious about juicing, so I bought a standard model Jack LaLane, primarily because Jack has been in the Juicing business for quite some time (he’s 92 years old, you know) and he said his juicer would juice about 30% more than the average juicer. I’m glad to say he was right. Based on my experience, I get much more juice from the LaLane juicer than I did from my old one. Another claim Jack makes is that his juicer allows you to put whole fruits into it rather than cut them up into smaller pieces. Although this statement is true, I’ve found that cutting a whole orange or a whole beet into 2, 3, or 4 pieces before you juice it allows the juicer to run more efficiently and produce more juice. So the choice is yours. Buy a juicer, don’t buy a juicer, buy a really good juicer. That was pretty straightforward, wasn't it?
2. If you’re read this far, I’m going to assume that you’ve already bought a juicer or are considering buying a good one. Here’s what you have to do next: discover some juices you might like. Juices you’d like to taste every day. Because consistency is a big part of a successful juicing program. You can't juice once every so often and expect to have tangible results. Here’s a couple of juices I can recommend:
-Granny Smith apple, beet and carrot. It tastes great, and you’ll feel very good immediately upon drinking it. It will clean you out and keep you regular. I make no recommendations as to amounts of each, although I tend to juice 1 beet root, 1 apple, and 1 to 2 handfuls of baby carrots, depending on my mood.
-Orange, tangerine and carrot. This can be a little tricky, but if you get it right, you’ll fall in love with the taste. It’s more orangey than orange juice! The secret here is to get the lighter colored navel oranges. They have thinner skin, and you will get more juice than you will from the brighter colored, thicker-skinned ones. Remove the skin of two navel oranges and juice them into a large container. Next, take the skin off 3 small tangerines or 2 large ones and juice those into the same container. After that, take 1 or 2 handfuls of baby carrots and juice those into the container. Then, with a long-handled tea spoon, stir the contents of the juicing container until those contents are the same color as the baby carrots. Finally, pour the juice into glasses and drink. I think you’ll be pleased!
-Juice spinach, celery and carrots into a juice container, then pour the juice from the juice container into a glass half-filled with store-bought tomato juice (I’m not going to explain why. If need to know why, read my blog entry that speaks about lycopene) and drink. Good stuff, Maynard!
3. When you buy the juicer, make sure you stick it on your kitchen counter right next to the sink. The reason for this should be obvious. If it’s on the counter and you see it every day, you’re more likely to use it. Also, having it next to the sink makes clean-up easy. I clean up immediately after every juicing, not allowing anything to dry up or cling to the juicing machine parts. I do this by using the spray attachment on my kitchen sink to remove all traces of fruit and vegetable pulp. I use a toothbrush (a new, clean one of course) to clean pulp out of my juice basket, and when everything is free of debris, I re-assemble the juicer so it is all ready for use next time. And every 10 days or so, I put all the removable parts of the juicer into the automatic dishwasher and let the dishwater give it a good scrub. As simple as that.
One other thing I want to mention. Depending on what you are juicing, the leftover pulp can be used in different foods. Pretty soon I’ll give you an example by offering a soup recipe that PSYCHENURSE shared with me.
But until the next exciting episode, this is THE JUICED AVENGER! Signing off.
1. Buy a juicer. Easy enough. But the question remains: which one? a top of the line one or the cheapest one you can find? The answer to that question depends on how serious you are. You know yourself best. If you think you may not stick with it because it’s only a fad, buy a cheap one. If you stick with it for months as opposed to weeks, you can upgrade to a more efficient and durable model. I first started juicing when “Juiceman” Jay Korda was promoting it. That would
have been sometime in the late 70s or early 80s. I was impressed by Korda’s knowledge of juicing and its benefits, but not enough to order one of his machines. Then one day at COSTCO, I saw a cheap juicer that I paid only $59 for. I kept that juicer until just a few months ago. It was at that time that I decided I must be serious about juicing, so I bought a standard model Jack LaLane, primarily because Jack has been in the Juicing business for quite some time (he’s 92 years old, you know) and he said his juicer would juice about 30% more than the average juicer. I’m glad to say he was right. Based on my experience, I get much more juice from the LaLane juicer than I did from my old one. Another claim Jack makes is that his juicer allows you to put whole fruits into it rather than cut them up into smaller pieces. Although this statement is true, I’ve found that cutting a whole orange or a whole beet into 2, 3, or 4 pieces before you juice it allows the juicer to run more efficiently and produce more juice. So the choice is yours. Buy a juicer, don’t buy a juicer, buy a really good juicer. That was pretty straightforward, wasn't it?
2. If you’re read this far, I’m going to assume that you’ve already bought a juicer or are considering buying a good one. Here’s what you have to do next: discover some juices you might like. Juices you’d like to taste every day. Because consistency is a big part of a successful juicing program. You can't juice once every so often and expect to have tangible results. Here’s a couple of juices I can recommend:
-Granny Smith apple, beet and carrot. It tastes great, and you’ll feel very good immediately upon drinking it. It will clean you out and keep you regular. I make no recommendations as to amounts of each, although I tend to juice 1 beet root, 1 apple, and 1 to 2 handfuls of baby carrots, depending on my mood.
-Orange, tangerine and carrot. This can be a little tricky, but if you get it right, you’ll fall in love with the taste. It’s more orangey than orange juice! The secret here is to get the lighter colored navel oranges. They have thinner skin, and you will get more juice than you will from the brighter colored, thicker-skinned ones. Remove the skin of two navel oranges and juice them into a large container. Next, take the skin off 3 small tangerines or 2 large ones and juice those into the same container. After that, take 1 or 2 handfuls of baby carrots and juice those into the container. Then, with a long-handled tea spoon, stir the contents of the juicing container until those contents are the same color as the baby carrots. Finally, pour the juice into glasses and drink. I think you’ll be pleased!
-Juice spinach, celery and carrots into a juice container, then pour the juice from the juice container into a glass half-filled with store-bought tomato juice (I’m not going to explain why. If need to know why, read my blog entry that speaks about lycopene) and drink. Good stuff, Maynard!
3. When you buy the juicer, make sure you stick it on your kitchen counter right next to the sink. The reason for this should be obvious. If it’s on the counter and you see it every day, you’re more likely to use it. Also, having it next to the sink makes clean-up easy. I clean up immediately after every juicing, not allowing anything to dry up or cling to the juicing machine parts. I do this by using the spray attachment on my kitchen sink to remove all traces of fruit and vegetable pulp. I use a toothbrush (a new, clean one of course) to clean pulp out of my juice basket, and when everything is free of debris, I re-assemble the juicer so it is all ready for use next time. And every 10 days or so, I put all the removable parts of the juicer into the automatic dishwasher and let the dishwater give it a good scrub. As simple as that.
One other thing I want to mention. Depending on what you are juicing, the leftover pulp can be used in different foods. Pretty soon I’ll give you an example by offering a soup recipe that PSYCHENURSE shared with me.
But until the next exciting episode, this is THE JUICED AVENGER! Signing off.
Thursday, January 1
MORE JUICING INFO
The only juice that has undergone a heating process that appears to have a health advantage over raw juice is tomato juice. When tomatoes are superheated and prepared as juice, a by-product of this process is lycopene. According to the Mayo Clinic, "Lycopene is a carotenoid present in human serum and skin as well as the liver, adrenal glands, lungs, prostate and colon. Lycopene has been found to possess antioxidant and antiproliferative properties in animal and laboratory studies, although activity in humans remains controversial. Numerous studies correlate high intake of lycopene-containing foods or high lycopene serum levels with reduced incidence of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and macular degeneration." So this is the lone exception to the rule: raw juice is best!
The first benefit of juicing is that the juice of fresh fruits and vegetables is the richest available food source of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. Remember when we talked about supermarket juice? Well the ingredients that are mostly destroyed as a result of commercial juicing processes are enzymes. And there is no other source of these except for fresh fruits and vegetables.
The second benefit of juicing is the ability to juice several types of fruits of vegetables in a day, giving you a much better chance of actually consuming the amount of nutrients from fresh and vegetables you need. If you don’t believe me, haul out the nutrition pyramid the federal govern-ment made up and try to eat the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables recommended. So you don’t have to look it up, I’ll tell you: that’s 3 to 5 servings of vegetables and 2 to 4 servings of fruit a day. That turns eating into a real chore for most people. But take the same amount of fruits and vegetables and juice them, and you now have a manageable task!
I will admit that the rest of the information I’m providing here is anecdotal and not scientific, and it is based strictly on my own observations. I claim from my own experience that the following things happen when you juice regularly. First, you have a decrease in appetite, especially for unhealthy foods. You’ll crave less sugar and salt. You’ll lose your taste for fat. Next, you’ll find that your mood improves and your memory gets better. The final thing I’m going to say probably makes me sound like an evangelist of sorts. And that is, immediately upon drinking the freshly processed juice, you will feel an increase in energy instantly. You will actually feel the juice being absorbed in your body as you drink it down! I’m sure scientists will tell that may be a placebo effect. But those same scientists will also tell you that the placebo effect is REAL.
Oops! I almost forgot to say:
To learn more about juicing, stay tuned for the next exciting episode of---
THE JUICED AVENGER!
The first benefit of juicing is that the juice of fresh fruits and vegetables is the richest available food source of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. Remember when we talked about supermarket juice? Well the ingredients that are mostly destroyed as a result of commercial juicing processes are enzymes. And there is no other source of these except for fresh fruits and vegetables.
The second benefit of juicing is the ability to juice several types of fruits of vegetables in a day, giving you a much better chance of actually consuming the amount of nutrients from fresh and vegetables you need. If you don’t believe me, haul out the nutrition pyramid the federal govern-ment made up and try to eat the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables recommended. So you don’t have to look it up, I’ll tell you: that’s 3 to 5 servings of vegetables and 2 to 4 servings of fruit a day. That turns eating into a real chore for most people. But take the same amount of fruits and vegetables and juice them, and you now have a manageable task!
I will admit that the rest of the information I’m providing here is anecdotal and not scientific, and it is based strictly on my own observations. I claim from my own experience that the following things happen when you juice regularly. First, you have a decrease in appetite, especially for unhealthy foods. You’ll crave less sugar and salt. You’ll lose your taste for fat. Next, you’ll find that your mood improves and your memory gets better. The final thing I’m going to say probably makes me sound like an evangelist of sorts. And that is, immediately upon drinking the freshly processed juice, you will feel an increase in energy instantly. You will actually feel the juice being absorbed in your body as you drink it down! I’m sure scientists will tell that may be a placebo effect. But those same scientists will also tell you that the placebo effect is REAL.
Oops! I almost forgot to say:
To learn more about juicing, stay tuned for the next exciting episode of---
THE JUICED AVENGER!
Wednesday, December 31
DIET IS A DIRTY WORD
What exactly is a diet? To me, it is an eating regimen in which people try to program themselves to eat specific foods, not because they taste good but because someone else has decided they should eat them. Is it any wonder diets fail? I hate the word "regimen" anyway, whether it pertains to exercise or eating, because the word implies a rigid compliance, which almost always turns out to be a recipe for failure. The only reason to eat or do anything is because you want to. Simple enough, but a truism nonetheless. So in a "diet", where does this motivation come from? Guess number one would be taste, and that's always a factor, but it doesn't have to be number one. Otherwise, we would all eat hot fudge sundaes until we were sick of them and then move on to our next vice on which we have not yet satiated, like butter pecan ice cream (Okay, so ignore this alternative and add your favorite indulgence).
To me, it comes down to two things: taste and how your body feels as a result. Given the "diet" prescribed above and my two criteria, anyone would soon stop eating hot fudge sundaes based on how the body felt afterwards ("logey", overstuffed, tired). So here's what I eat. In the morning, a eat a whole grain cereal. If you don't know what a whole grain cereal is, read the ingredients on the box. That'll tell you. And if you're too lazy to do that, I can tell you Raisin Bran, Cheerios and Shredded Wheat are three examples of whole grain cereals. Later in the day (I don't eat a traditional lunch), I juice. My favorite, which I may have already told you, is Granny Smith apple, beets (leaves as well as roots), and carrots. Drinking this juice usually makes me thirsty, so I follow it with a tall glass of water. Later, I'll have a small dish of no-fat yogurt that has blueberries mixed into it. For the evening meal, I try to eat at least 4 to 6 ounces of protein, which amounts to a serving of tuna, meat or beans the size of the palm of my hand. I eat these things because it tastes good to me, because there is flexibility and variety in it, and because of the way my body feels afterwards. Occasionally I break my routine because my wife does not follow the same routine I do, and she can cook some great meals, but I still don't make too much of a break in my routine, and the next day, I'm back to my "old standards": whole grain cereal, juicing and 4 to 6 ounces of protein for the day.
Another break I take occasionally is to have a beer, or two. Maximum. I used to drink more indiscriminately, having between 4 and 6 beers in a 2 to 4 hour period, although I didn’t drink that often. That, to me, was what drinking was all about. Then I learned that one to two beers a day was healthy. More than that was excess. So sometimes after I exercise (like today) I'll have a beer or two, or sometimes on a "day off" (I take a day off from exercising once every week), I'll have a beer. The funny thing is, drinking two beers, max., has taken beer drinking from the realm of indulgence into the realm of nutrition. Oh, well.
So what's your routine like?
AND......stay tuned for the next exciting episode of THE JUICED AVENGER!!!
To me, it comes down to two things: taste and how your body feels as a result. Given the "diet" prescribed above and my two criteria, anyone would soon stop eating hot fudge sundaes based on how the body felt afterwards ("logey", overstuffed, tired). So here's what I eat. In the morning, a eat a whole grain cereal. If you don't know what a whole grain cereal is, read the ingredients on the box. That'll tell you. And if you're too lazy to do that, I can tell you Raisin Bran, Cheerios and Shredded Wheat are three examples of whole grain cereals. Later in the day (I don't eat a traditional lunch), I juice. My favorite, which I may have already told you, is Granny Smith apple, beets (leaves as well as roots), and carrots. Drinking this juice usually makes me thirsty, so I follow it with a tall glass of water. Later, I'll have a small dish of no-fat yogurt that has blueberries mixed into it. For the evening meal, I try to eat at least 4 to 6 ounces of protein, which amounts to a serving of tuna, meat or beans the size of the palm of my hand. I eat these things because it tastes good to me, because there is flexibility and variety in it, and because of the way my body feels afterwards. Occasionally I break my routine because my wife does not follow the same routine I do, and she can cook some great meals, but I still don't make too much of a break in my routine, and the next day, I'm back to my "old standards": whole grain cereal, juicing and 4 to 6 ounces of protein for the day.
Another break I take occasionally is to have a beer, or two. Maximum. I used to drink more indiscriminately, having between 4 and 6 beers in a 2 to 4 hour period, although I didn’t drink that often. That, to me, was what drinking was all about. Then I learned that one to two beers a day was healthy. More than that was excess. So sometimes after I exercise (like today) I'll have a beer or two, or sometimes on a "day off" (I take a day off from exercising once every week), I'll have a beer. The funny thing is, drinking two beers, max., has taken beer drinking from the realm of indulgence into the realm of nutrition. Oh, well.
So what's your routine like?
AND......stay tuned for the next exciting episode of THE JUICED AVENGER!!!
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