Tag: losing weight

Creating Good Health is not Rocket Science – “The Art of a Healthy Diet”

Dr. Linda GadboisLeave a comment

It’s interesting that the idea of creating good health or being healthy is often perceived as difficult to do. This is probably due largely to the fact that much of our food supply is artificial, processed and loaded with unnatural chemicals, or is a strategic composition of products designed to be highly addictive and of course, taste good. Other programs approach healthy eating as the need to be a nutritional expert or involve elaborate tables for “calorie counting” and measuring fat content, gauging everything by a number system of some sort that makes the whole process tedious and cumbersome. Along with this dilemma, supplements presented as the answer to poor eating habits, are largely synthetic, and usually only abstract one chemical from a whole organism as a vitamin or nutrient, and for the most part, not valuable to our actual health outside of the placebo affect, and are thought, like all synthetic chemicals to cause cancer with prolonged use. This dietary nightmare tends to not only create poor conditions in the body, but also mental and emotional depression that’s low-grade and chronic in nature, and because people are accustomed to it and think of it as ‘normal’, goes unrecognized. Yet, creating good health can be accomplished by simply following a few basic principles.

 
These health promoting principles deal with whole ideas instead of fragmented ones and should be implemented in stages as small yet consistent steps with reasonable time frames allotted to each stage. Trying to do too much at once, causing a feeling of deprivation, withdrawal, and suffering, will only act to sabotage the overall goal, or simply replace toxic material chemistry with emotional chemistry which produces an equivalent affect. Also, anytime you’re “quitting something”, especially something you really like and are used to, still set reasonable guidelines for when you can have it that reduce it to only an occasional event. Usually, what actually makes a product bad is the frequency of consumption, and anything only eaten occasionally probably isn’t going to hurt you or produce a pronounced affect. Being extreme in any area should always be avoided and a sense of moderation employed instead. You don’t want to take the attitude of correcting one imbalance by producing another.
There are three basic natural substances that are addictive by their very nature because they’re stimulants, and should be recognized as such.

These three products are:

• Sugar (or artificial sweeteners)

• Salt – sodium

• Fats (of any kind)

 

All of these derived from natural sources and consumed in moderation can be healthy for the body and serve to promote overall health. Sugar obtained naturally from fruits and vegetables that the body converts to glucose, unless you have diabetes or a health condition where all sugar intake has got to be monitored, is probably going to be fine. The energy obtained from natural, plant based foods, gives you the same sugar boost without the crash. Salt, again, is actually a necessary mineral, is important for thyroid health, promotes alkalinity in the body, and is only harmful because the modern diet of highly processed foods uses gross amounts of it not only as a flavor enhancer and preservative but also ‘because’ it’s addictive. Just eliminating processed foods and minimizing the use of table salt will probably remedy and restore balance to your system in regards to salt intake.

 
Fats are a bit trickier, because we have “good” fats and “bad” fats, but as a general rule of thumb, stay away from any foods that are cooked in ‘hot oils’, which are extremely carcinogenic and known to cause cancer. As a general rule, pick oils that remain liquid at room (ambient) or cold temperatures. Eliminate all forms of margarine which is a synthetic product, and if you need to continue using a similar product, use unsalted ‘real’ butter instead, and only occasionally. If you choose to eat animals, reduce consumption to one serving a day, approximately the size of your fist. Cheese, which is the highest cholesterol food there is, like milk and all dairy (comes from cows), causes mucous and congestion in the body, which is never good. So again, if you don’t eliminate dairy, definitely reduce your intake.

 
Other chemical additives, such as MSG, aspartame, corn syrup, along with numerous dyes, flavor enhancers, and preservatives, none of which are natural or good for you, can be eliminated for the most part by eliminating processed foods, which are loaded with them. Processed foods are not only boxed, instant powders, and prepared foods, but also any canned, frozen or packaged foods which are processed as a preparation and have chemical additives of various sorts. When considering packaged foods, always read the ingredients to see what’s in it. Always avoid any food that has a lot of ingredients as chemical additives (you don’t know what they are for sure) or that’s fortified with nutritional additives. The reason foods are fortified is because the nutrition normally found in that type of food has been destroyed through the processing and is enriched with vitamins that are synthetic (chemical) versions that your body won’t be able to properly assimilate.

Fruits and Vegetables
Also, anytime you’re choosing to eliminate one thing or a food group, you need to also decide what you’re going to replace it with. Work by the basic idea that all habits are not “stopped” they’re simply transformed from unhealthy to healthy habits. The adage that “nature abhors a vacuum”, means, that anytime you create a “void” something will automatically be drawn into that void, and knowing this and working with principles of Nature instead of against them, we want to “decide” what’s drawn in that’s replacing whatever we’re removing. By deciding ahead of time what you’re going to replace items with, the “on the spot decisions” are easy, pre-calculated and immediate. Ease is a key feature to change!

 
To form your initial plan, start with primary ideas, and implement them one at a time (unless giving up something is easy), and as a good rule of thumb, allow at least forty days for each step before implementing the next. It takes approximately 40 days of consistency to transform old habits and establish new behaviors that become natural and automatic. After approximately six weeks of doing something, it becomes natural and no longer requires any kind of effort or actual decision making process.
In selecting the items and behaviors we’ll look at transforming, we’ll naturally start with the worst ones, and work our way down. If any of these areas seem like a huge change (you eat them a lot), then break the area itself down into two or three groups that will make the transition gradual.

 

These are the areas we’ll start with:
• Soda pop – any carbonated sugary (processed) drink. The carbonation is as bad if not worse than the sugar content and is known to cause bone-thinning as osteoporosis. While water is always the best option, wean yourself off high sugar drinks.

 
• Deep-fried foods, or any food cooked in hot-oils. Any kind of oil heated is extremely carcinogenic and creates a ton of free radicals, which are detrimental to your health causing general deterioration and cancers.

 
• Sweets, candy, desserts, ice-cream, and artificially flavored foods. Sugars not only cause weight gain, but also bind to nutrients and carry them out of the body, causing nutritional deficiency.

 
• Processed foods – most fast food. These are laced with chemicals and the processing strips them of any real nutritional value. The body can’t assimilate synthetic foods. Many of the chemicals used are known to cause cancer as well as an array of health problems. Only eat what looks like real food – whole foods.

 
• Dairy products – especially cheese. You don’t have to eliminate necessarily, but bring down to one portion a day.

 
• Processed breads, cakes, and products made with white-processed flour. They contain very little nutrients and are fattening. Go for products that are “stone ground” or made of non-processed wheat.

 
• If you eat animals, regardless of what kind (including fish), reduce your intake to one serving a day, approximately the size of your fist. Avoid any meat that’s breaded and fried, seared over and open flame, or grilled using charcoal (petroleum based).
• Eat a reasonable portion of grains, seeds and nuts. Avoid salted and “roasted” nuts, as they contain natural oils which are heated through the process of cooking.

 
• Develop the habit of using healthy “oils”. Oils that remains liquid at room temperatures. Extra Virgin olive oil is a good choice because it’s derived from olives through a “cold press” method and doesn’t involve heating the oil. However cooking with olive oil makes it just as carcinogenic as all oils. For cooking, consider coconut oil, which remains fairly stable when heated. Otherwise, exercise moderation.

 
• Plant based foods – whole fruits and vegetables should consist of 50-70% of your diet. Keep in mind that grains, nuts and seeds are also plant-based foods. Fats contained naturally in plants (which are very little) have a different affect on the body than fats derived from animal products. So a plant based diet is typically low in fat and calories and high in nutrients and dietary fiber.

 

 

Again, when eliminating anything from your diet take an attitude of significantly decreasing while still allotting occasional use. What you’ll find is that in doing so, you lose your taste for it, and after a while, no longer crave it, or when you do eat it, you don’t like it or it makes you feel funny. Keep in mind that your body will grow accustomed to whatever you feed it on a regular basis. By eliminating sugar from your diet over a period of time, when you do eat it, it can seem to make you feel queasy. When eliminating fried foods for an extended period of time, just the smell of grease will turn your stomach. When eliminating dairy over a period of time, you lose interest in it and don’t really think about it.

 
Again, make sure that at no point you create a feeling of struggling or suffering. When this happens you produce body chemistry as hormones that can be just as harmful as the food chemicals you’re eliminating. If you get a strong craving, indulge it, and then go back to your practice. If you’re eliminating carbonated drinks, for example, allow yourself to have them on special occasions such as when seeing a movie, at a fair or carnival, at a social engagement or sports event, and so on, where you’re still allowed, but only occasionally. The toughest part is breaking the daily routine, not the occasional one. And again, you want to avoid becoming extreme or gun-ho in any area, which simply creates a new “imbalance”. The key to success is a preplanned idea of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, coupled with an attitude of moderation.

 

Dr. Linda Gadbois
Integrated Health Consultant

About the Author:

Dr. Linda is a Integrative Health Consultant, personal development trainer and innovative business consultant for Physician / Healthcare entrepreneurs. She conducts regular training events for Integrative Health, Mind Development, Personal Transformation, Professional Development, Communication Skills, and Enlightened Leadership. She’s available for private or public speaking engagements, and personal or group Mentoring sessions. To inquire or schedule a consultation, click here

The Health Danger of Fried Foods – “The Poisons in the Preparation”

Dr. Linda GadboisLeave a comment

frying foods
Many people focus largely, if not completely on the nutritional and chemical composition of the food and don’t even think about how it’s being prepared, or the additional affects encountered through various cooking methods. Frying foods, which consists of cooking in hot oils of any kind, creates a chemical reaction called oxidation, which is extremely carcinogenic. It loads the system with what called free radicals that damage the molecular structure of the body, compromising it, and ultimately creates the ideal environment for a large variety of cancers.

 
Oxidation of cells is what’s called body “rust”. In order to get a visual idea of this, slice an apple, and the exposure to oxygen turns it reddish-brown from free radical damage. Oxidation takes place when oxygen loses an electron during interaction with other molecules, and becomes a form of renegade as a free radical. These are what you might call wounded or unstable oxygen molecules that are very dangerous to the over-all health of the body. In their natural quest to heal themselves, free radicals steal electrons from any healthy (whole) molecule they can, creating more free radicals in the process, and so they multiply. Whenever oxygen mixes with other molecules, free radicals form.

fried chicken

Frying foods in oils of any form should be eliminated as a food preparation method. Heating oils changes the chemical composition of the oil loading it with free radicals. This includes not only the obvious deep fried or pan fried foods, but also things like potato chips, snack items, and nuts and seeds that are roasted in oils, or in their own oil. It also includes all animal meats that cook in their own juices as body fats. Grilling as well as pan frying or any method that sears, browns and glazes with a crispiness, is especially carcinogenic and should be avoided. French fries and potato products are especially bad because the potato absorbs and retains a large amount of the oil. Deep (vat) fried products are especially bad because the oil is not only heated at 340-360 degrees, but is kept heated for hours and days at a time. The average fast-food restaurant only changes the oil in deep fryers every 2 to 3 days, after it has completely broke down, become dark, filled with sediments, and rancid tasting.

 
Most oils are produced through various forms of heat extraction, which makes them highly carcinogenic as a basic product, before they’re used for cooking. The advantage of Olive oil that’s “extra virgin” is that it’s extracted from olives through a cold-press method, and is not heated. If it doesn’t say “virgin” or “extra virgin”, which means collected from the first round of cold pressing, then it’s not “pure” and is produced from heat extracting of some sort, and is carcinogenic as a result before it’s even used for cooking by heating it further. Once oil is heated, even olive oil, it oxidizes even further, producing a large array of free radicals that damage the body at the cellular level and become the breeding ground for cancers, tumors, masses and a whole group of other diseases, such as hardening of the arteries, high cholesterol (LDL), degenerative eye diseases (macular degeneration), DNA – damaging genetic information (causing cells to replicate uncontrollably becoming cancerous), and aging itself through cellular breakdown.

french fries
As the Laws of nature go, every force has a counter force, and for every free radical our body produces through chemical reactions of various sorts, there is an antioxidant to control it. The primary antioxidants are vitamins C, E, and beta-carotene (produces Vitamin A). Antioxidants literally come between free radicals and cells, and offer up their own electrons in order to stabilize them. Foods that are high in antioxidants are a good idea to eat on a regular basis to help counteract all the forms of free radicals that not only come from our diet, but also toxins in our everyday environment. A diet heavy in fruits and vegetables such as: citrus fruits, broccoli, carrots, green and sweet peppers, dark green leafy vegetables, sweet potatoes, squash, spinach, and wheat germ are just a hand full that contain high levels of antioxidants, and should be a regular part of your daily diet.

 
Alternative cooking methods should be employed to replace any form of frying or heating oils as a means of cooking. Raw, steaming and baking are obvious alternatives for vegetables, also simmering in water or low-sodium vegetable broth in place of frying. While this alters the flavor of the food, you’ll grow accustomed to it in no time, and once you get used to the fresher taste that it produces, greasy foods will lose their appeal, not to mention you’ll be reaping the results in terms of health and just knowing that your taking positive steps to improve your health and increase the vitality of your body, which has a lot of satisfaction in it. When we take good care of ourselves, we feel good about ourselves and begin taking responsibility for our own health and sense of well-being.

 
And always keep in mind that the body grows accustomed to whatever we feed it. When changing eating habits, it only requires a time frame of 4 – 6 weeks before a new habit is established, and then, the old one loses it appeal, you no longer crave it, and even when you do eat it on occasion, it doesn’t taste nearly as good. So learn to take back control of your health by making conscious decisions that nourish your body, instead of satisfying addictive cravings that act to destroy your health. You’ll reap the consequences of a healthy young looking body, higher energy level, clear and radiant skin, and a noticeably improved state of mind!

Dr. Linda Gadbois

Health Consultation

The Art of Goal Setting – “Creating Resolutions that Work”

Dr. Linda GadboisLeave a comment

In gaining an understanding of how we manifest as a personal process that utilizes the willful use of our mind, we can create a new way of looking at an age old tradition of making a resolution as a means of consciously self-creating and imposing a desired direction on our life. Creating comes by choosing what you will create as apposed to just existing in the current pattern that’s running your life. In order to work within the laws of the mind, we need to transform it from the idea of a goal as a statement, to a well-formed outcome as an actual experience. By creating a goal as a holistic idea that embraces the psychology involved in creating, we can learn skills at working more proficiently with our “whole mind” instead of fragmented parts. While the language of the conscious mind is words as abstract and conveying only personal meaning, the language of the subconscious mind is feelings, emotions, images, impressions, and actual experiences. The subconscious mind which builds and maintains the body while also producing automatic behaviors, is programmed through imagining goals as actual experiences. While the conscious mind can be perceived as having the ability to “choose”, the subconscious mind can be thought of as the “will” that serves to act out the choice by producing the behavior of its fulfillment.

The other immediate mistake people make, is they set goals that are negative in nature, and then use the creative power of their mind to create the very thing they don’t want. The mind can’t process a negative command. It doesn’t work by forming mental impressions around what “not” to do, or of what you “don’t” want. It works by interjecting a suggestion as an idea that’s imagined as a reality in the mind, while forming feelings around it or in response to it that creates a pattern as an actual experience that serves as a program for the subconscious mind to produce as an outer experience that matches the internal experience. We first create inwardly what we want as an imagined reality, which becomes the template as a perceptual filter that forms our outer experience as a correspondence to the inner. A goal must be stated in positive terms. Not in terms of what you don’t want, but in terms of what you do want. You form the goal or wish into an actual reality as an outcome or as an actual experience.

For example, if your goal is to lose 20 pounds, then the mind has to picture the 20 pounds you want to lose. Keep in mind, anything we can lose, we can also find again. Because you are not providing it with an image of the desired result, it sees the 20 pounds and the meaning you give it (fat, ugly, unattractive, unhealthy, sloppy, etc.) as the reason you want to lose it, as the actual emotional reason for creating it. The negative command literally says, picture this, feel this way about what you’re picturing, and give me more of it as a means of making me feel the same way. The emotion we attach to the image, is also speaking in the language of the subconscious which it sees as a request for “more” as a pattern for fulfillment. This is why as soon as you profess the need to “diet” as a means of losing weight, you simultaneously form irresistible compulsions around eating more, or eating the things you say you want to “resist”. Behavior is emotionally driven and is how the subconscious mind creates. You don’t focus on the fat that you want to lose, but instead you create an idea of how you’ll look and feel when 20 pounds lighter. You imagine your body in the shape you want it, how you’ll look, how your clothes will fit, what you’ll be telling yourself about how you look and feel, what others will be saying, and so on. You create the desired outcome the goal is intended to produce as an actual reality. You imagine it “within” the experience of it.

When we use language to define a goal, it’s abstract in the sense that it doesn’t always have behavior attached to it. It doesn’t indicate an experience or the process necessary to achieve it. It’s not creative unless it serves to direct our behavior, that is to say, give the subconscious mind a pattern for producing the actual reality. Our mind creates by an understanding of how the conscious mind has the ability to direct and command the subconscious mind by giving it directives in its own language. Words as ideas must be transformed into feelings as imagined experience of the desired outcome and what you will feel as a result in order to give the subconscious mind an “experience” as a pattern for fulfillment. The mind works by creating a perceivable and therefore believable reality as a means of fulfillment by associating an experience to a desired feeling. In order to produce change, language must be converted into experience. We have to look at what the language indicates, see it as an analogy or symbolic of a desired feeling, and create the experience of it as an actual reality, then while holding this in mind, embellish it with strong emotions of desire, adoration, admiration, respect, honor, and so on, and allow these emotions as they escalate to form feelings of gratitude and appreciation which sets an expectation for them. What we expect and look for . . . we find and get.

Dr. Linda Gadbois
Integrative Health Consultant and Spiritual Mentor

Creating a Vision Board

 

Creating a Vision Board – “Visual Mapping of a Desired Reality as a Series of Goals”

Dr. Linda GadboisLeave a comment

Many of us have heard that any goal that’s written down has a greater chance of being actualized than one that’s not. And while this is true, the way the mind naturally creates realities is through imagining them as actual experiences. By creating a reality out of a goal, we form an internal representation as a conceptualization of that goal as a possibility, which makes it believable, while giving us a mental template for perceiving it and acting it out. Psychologically speaking, we can only “do” what we can first imagine. We are only capable of behaviors that we can “see ourselves” doing. Imagining an idea is a prerequisite for creating it as an outer experience.

When we form a sensory reality of a goal “as if” it’s real and already happening, we give the subconscious mind (responsible for all behaviors) a “program” as a form of virtual memory which it uses in place of actual memory and acts to automatically create it. When we envision a reality, we are setting a pattern as a request that says . . . give me more of this. We program the mind to seek it out and recognize what is of the same nature and can be used to create a similar experience in our environment. At the same time, when envisioning a desired reality, we sense ourselves in that experience, and identify with it. This not only hones our vibratory frequency to that reality as a state-of-mind, but also programs the mind to seek it out through a form of resonance. It magnetizes the idea internally as a guidance system that moves us towards its fulfillment, and draws the elements of its fulfillment to us.

Anytime we create an internal reality around an idea, we form a dynamic series of associations to that idea as a variety of experiences inherent in the potential the idea holds for us, that causes us to recognize ideas of the same nature, though they may appear different than we imagined, and can spawn a series of coincidences that when followed or investigated, form a pathway for creating more of the same type of experiences. You want to vary how you imagine a goal as a reality to ensure that you don’t get stuck on only one possibility for how it could show up. You want to release any attachments you have to needing it to be something specific, but rather concentrate on the feeling the idea represents, and allow a chain of association to arise out of it as a reality. Any formulated experience is based on the “feeling” it represents and has to come by way of whatever is available in your immediate environment as a way of manifesting in your everyday life. How it shows up will be based on the elements in near proximity to you that are of the same nature and can be used to co-create the same type of experience. Though it may vary in appearance, the feeling it gives you will be the same. If you get set on it needing to show up or appear in a specific way, you may miss it when it actually comes as a variation.

When setting a goal of any kind, notice the feeling associated with that goal, what the goal represents in terms of the type of experience it will give you, and then allow realities as possibilities to naturally emerge as a free-flowing chain of association that amplifies the feeling by creating more of it. Then, when the feeling is amplified, become aware of how it feels in your body, concentrate on it and seat it. This feeling as a distinct movement in your body that acts as a stimulus is not only your beacon, but also your homing device. It’s your means of recognizing in your environment what’s of the same nature and acts to stimulate you with that same feeling, which will lend itself naturally to co-create experiences that will express and give you more of that same feeling. The feeling (vibratory frequency) is the common denominator. The inner realities as images that invoke specific feelings are simply potentials of that feeling that help you recognize the idea in it’s various forms and as clothed in many different ways, making it appear different. An internal feeling creates a certain type of experience as a living reality in the external world.

As a general rule of thumb, whatever your vision as a goal of some kind is, should never involve other people, or require them to be apart of it in order to manifest it as a reality. The accomplishment of all goals should lie exclusively within your power to create. Because a goal of any kind ultimately represents a desired experience of some sort as a feeling, if you dream of having a certain type of experience with a specific person, and the true reality is that the experience they’ll bring you will be quite different than you imagine, then they are not of the same vibration and do not represent the fulfillment of your desire. You won’t be able to attract them with your vision. They won’t have a “role” in acting out the same type of reality with you. Instead, concentrate intensely on the feelings of the desired reality, and be as open as possible to whatever form it will come in. Release attachments to needing it to show up in only one form, and be open to completely new and often surprising alternatives.

To form a vision board, create an over-all plan for the coming year, and break that plan down into a series of goals as a step-by-step process necessary to create the over-all goal as a desired reality. Imagine the goals as experiences, and what image symbolizes or represents it, or what words or sayings are associated with it. Find pictures, words, sayings, or objects that symbolize all the goals necessary to create the ultimate outcome, and arrange them in an artistic and pleasing way on a piece of poster board or foam core. Then use it as a visual meditation, by imaging the ideas associated to the pictures, or by forming visions from the words and sayings. Whatever is on your board acts as the stimulus for a series of realities around the actualization of your goal as if you are experiencing it. As you meditate, form and associate very positive emotions around and towards your vision. Fall in love with it. As you imagine it as real and happening, stimulating very positive emotions in response to it, infuse it with love and a deep sense of gratitude and give thanks to the Universe for making it possible. Make this a regular, if not daily practice.

Dr. Linda Gadbois
Consultant for Personal Transformation