Fun ways to exercise in winter

Now that the weather is cooling, and winter is on its way (along with the obligatory holiday feasts of the season), many of us tend to begin packing on the pounds.

It is hard to get motivated to get up and work out on these cold, dark mornings, and depending on where you live, there may not be a lot of options for outdoor activities.

But don’t despair — there are plenty of fun ways to exercise indoors, or even enjoy the outdoors on cold snowy winter days!

Videos and books can be a great source of ideas for indoor activities for all ages. (For some of my favorite recommendations for fast, fun, easy workouts, visit http://www.newholisticliving.com/exercise.html.)

Yoga or Pilates-based workouts can provide fun, relaxing stretching, strengthening, and toning moves for a variety of fitness levels, either with or without equipment. More aerobic dance-based workouts can also be a lot of fun, and can get the blood flowing and get you warmed up and feeling great in a hurry — it’s a great way to beat back the winter blues!

The important thing to remember is that in order to keep your fitness level up throughout the winter, you’ve got to not only get moving, but make it a habit (and if you’ve been quite active, you know it’s addictive!). But in order to make it a habit, you have to first make it a priority. You may have to push yourself a bit at first — remember it takes 21-30 days of consistent practice to form a new habit. But once you’ve gotten your body used to moving and grooving, you’ll find you won’t want to stop!

The body needs movement, and it needs it often — lots of it.

It may be hard to fit exercise into your schedule at first, but you will reap a host of benefits that will make the time invested well worth it.

Activity not only raises your body temperature (important on cold winter days!), but it also relieves stress, improves your mood, and strengthens your immune system, so you will be less likely to catch any of the winter-time bugs going around. And with all that’s going around this winter, you really can’t afford NOT to exercise!

And remember, you don’t have to exhaust yourself, or spend hours of boredom on a treadmill. 30 minutes per day (or sometimes less, if you’re doing the right activities) is enough to be of benefit, and you can break this into segments if you like. 

However, if you’re doing something you enjoy, you’ll find the time will fly by anyway!

Besides videos or structured workout routines, here are some other ideas for fun ways to exercise in the winter:

• Swimming: Many gyms or your local “Y” have indoor pools which can be great exercise year-round
• Dance classes: You you can find numerous classes for all different types of dance, from hip-hop to belly-dancing, at many fitness centers or other local venues, often for a quite affordable price. The recent resurgence of popularity in Ballroom and Latin dancing has introduced many to this fun activity — and it’s great exercise! There are many local dance studios in most metropolitan areas, where you can find both group and private classes. (If you live in the Columbus, Ohio area, we recommend Emerald City Ballroom.)
• Depending on the climate where you live, you may also be able to find outdoor winter activities which are great exercise, and fun for the whole family, such as ice skating, or skiing (both cross-country and downhill skiing provide a GREAT workout, as well as the exhilaration of the great outdoors!)

So go ahead, try some of these ideas — mix them up however you like, to find what you enjoy the most. Once you’ve made physical activity a priority for a couple of weeks, you’ll find your body craving it daily, and your enjoyment level increasing, along with your health and well-being.

Have a great winter, be well, and above all else, have fun! (For more fun workout ideas, visit http://www.newholisticliving.com/exercise.html.)

Three Simple Steps to Guaranteed Success

Recently I was listening to a talk by Bill Harris, one of the featured teachers from the hit movie, “The Secret.”

Bill was discussing a variety of issues relating to accomplishing (or “manifesting”) one’s goals. It was an interesting discussion, but one particular area caught my attention, and has been on my mind for some time.

It strikes me that, although there are myriad ways to become successful, and even more tips and techniques to help along the way, there really are just three simple steps that will lead you to success in any endeavor, if you actually follow them.

I’ve broken down the steps in more detail below, but here is the gist of it:
Step 1. Assess Where You Are
Step 2. Decide Where You Want to Go
Step 3. Take Action (or: Just Do It)
(Told you they were simple!)

Okay, so Step One: Assess Where You Are:

In order to accomplish your goal, you must know your starting point. Seems rather simplistic, but it is amazing how few people actually do this first step before jumping into something new.

If you want to, for example, double your income this year, you need to know what your current income is right now, right? This is a simple example, but this step is an important one, and can involve such serious considerations as: What obstacles stand in your way, right now? Are there underlying issues that need to be dealt with first? (For example, issues of self-worth that make you sabotage your own efforts?) Are there subconscious reasons why at some level you may want to stay where you are?

This step can involve much introspection and soul-searching, but jumping into your new endeavor without first addressing this step can at worst be disastrous, and at best, leave you right back where you started. (For a number of tools to help you work through these issues faster in a pleasant, productive way, feel free to visit our website at: http://www.newholisticliving.com/brainwaveentrainment.html )

In a way, this first step is also a kind of pre-planning step, as this is a good place to assess what you have and what you don’t have, as well as what tools and resources you may need to accomplish your goal.

Which leads us to Step Two: Decide Where You Want to Go:

This is another hugely important step — if you don’t know where you want to go, you’re not all that likely to get there!

This step is perhaps the most discussed by success coaches and “gurus”. and it relates to the specificity of goals. If your goal is simply to increase your income, that’s not really a good map of where you want to go. I.e., you could earn $1.00 more this year than last year, and technically, you would have achieved your goal, but this probably is not what you had in mind!

Sometimes people skip right over this step and go straight to Step 3, and still find success — you may have heard of someone like this. Certainly this is possible, but your results will generally be much better, and the process smoother, if you don’t leave this one out. Another plus is that you will feel more in control of your life and the direction you are heading, and will probably experience less stress and uncertainty throughout the process, which is always a nice side effect!

Some people call this step “finding your purpose,” and indeed, a lot has been made about this phrase, which I find kind of funny, and also self-defeating. For one thing, most people don’t have just ONE purpose throughout their entire lives. Of course, you can have one big, long-term, overall life goal (such as to be a parent, or to have a successful marriage, or to help find a cure for cancer, etc.), but you will also have innumerable other purposes throughout your lifetime, from medium-term or moderately important purposes (such as getting a certain job, or getting married within the next 5 years), to very small even daily purposes, like getting a good cup of coffee before breakfast, or getting the bills paid.

Sometimes I think such a big deal is made about “finding your purpose” that it can cause people unnecessary stress and self-doubt, especially if they feel like they don’t know what their ONE life purpose is. Which leads me to my second point, which is…..

Your purpose is not something you FIND!

Wow, think about that for a moment….

Your purpose in life (or this year, this month, or this morning) is not some mystical thing — a light that shines from heaven, accompanied by dramatic music or the world standing still (at least, not usually!)

Your purpose is, quite simply, whatever you decide it is.

That’s right — you don’t “find your purpose” — you make a decision.

I can decide my purpose in life is to have children and be a great wife and mother. Or I can decide my purpose is to help people with AIDs in Africa. I can decide my purpose this year is to make an extra $10,000. Or that next month, I will sell 20 more products than this month. And I can have different purposes for each area of my life for any given time-frame.

That’s why Step 2 isn’t “find your purpose” — it’s decide where you want to go.

Your purpose = your choice.

Pretty awesome, huh?

And of course, we have Step Three: Take Action, or as I like to think of it, ”Just Do It!”

Huh? Wait — do what? What do I do? What if I don’t know what to do?

Okay, this is another simple one — which again, seems maybe too simple, but, just do SOMETHING. That’s right, I said “something.”

There are two reasons why I’m not being more specific. One is that I can’t — I don’t know what the action is that you should take — that is up to you, once you’ve decided your goals and purpose. Secondly, I don’t want you to get stuck, which is a common problem for many people at this point.

You’ve assessed where you are, and where you want to go, but what now? What is the first action you should perform to get there? What if you don’t know how to start your own business, get a raise, or meet the love of your life?

At this point, a lot of people start to worry, doubt themselves, and even give up before they really start. They think, what if it doesn’t work? What if I lose? What if I fail?

Bill Harris says you never really fail — “you just get more information.” Wow… pretty powerful concept, and also very true. You try something, and it doesn’t work — now you know that doesn’t work, so you try something else.

I think if I had to pinpoint one thing that separates successful people from those who aren’t, that would be it, right there. Many people have such a fear of failing, they either never start, and get caught up in an endless cycle of information gathering and assessing all the various angles and things that could go wrong, or they do make a start, it doesn’t work, and they see it as “failure,” and don’t try another approach.

All of the successful people I know (including myself) have faced tremendous challenges, setbacks, and “failures.” But they tried something else, and kept going. Over. And over. And over.

So do SOMETHING. Anything. Take any action you can think of to get started towards your goal, even if it seems at first small and insignificant. Then, take another. And if that doesn’t work, take another. And every so often, stop, assess where you are, decide where you want to go, and then take another. It works — trust me, I know.

Where I am in life now is so different from anywhere I would have ever imagined 10 years ago, 5 years ago, even 9 months ago. And most of the events that occurred to get me here were just a small action, which I took because I didn’t know what to do, but had to try SOMETHING.

6 years ago, I was broke, depressed, living in a crappy apartment behind a drive-through liquor store, drowning in debt and struggling for every dime, and unhappy at my job. I won’t bore you with the whole story, but eventually I got so tired of being where I was, that I decided I had to do something to make a change.

Strangely enough, the action I ended up taking was to schedule an appointment with a financial planner, which really makes no sense, as I didn’t have any money, but silly as it seems, that’s all I could think of (plus the opportunity presented itself when I was most desperate).

And that small action changed my life forever. Along with his (and God’s) help, and the will to make a change, within a year, my life had turned around 180-degrees.

5 years later, my income has more than quadrupled, I am virtually debt-free, I work at a job I love, own the best car I’ve ever had (free and clear), and operate two thriving online businesses.

Looking back, there were many of these little actions I took, just like that one, without knowing how they would turn out,  to get me where I am today. And many times I have “failed,” but as Bill would say, I just got more information about what didn’t work. And I tried something else.

Step 1 and Step 2 are important, but once you’ve got those in hand, don’t get stuck — remember the famous words of Nike, and Just Do It!

Good luck! And if you would like more ideas on how to enhance your personal growth and become the best you can be, just visit http://www.newholisticliving.com/brainwaveentrainment.html for some great tools.

Fix Health-Care: Pay your own way, not the insurance companies’

The health-care debate rages on, and there’s a lot of mud a-flying…. I went online the other day to try to find a copy of President Obama’s actual proposed healthcare plan plan, to educate myself on what it actually contains, instead of relying on all the rumors. Instead, I found thousands of pages of opinions on both sides, and really not much real information at all.

I don’t plan to get in the middle of this debate. For one thing, I don’t think the proposed plan really does much of anything to solve the actual problem. (However, at least someone is actually trying to do SOMETHING about this crisis — which may turn out to be one of the largest challenges our country has ever faced.)

But I did find one article that to me, sums up a large part of problem, if not the entire kit & caboodle. The headline of the article was: “Want to fix health-care? Put down the doughnut.” 

A little tongue-in-cheek perhaps, but it seemed to me that this pretty much hits the nail on the head.  Where is all of OUR responsibility in this issue? Everyone keeps saying “fix health-care,” but what about you? What about me?  The largest health issue facing us today is not doctors, hospitals, or health insurance, but our OWN lack of responsibility in maintaining our health!  There, I said it.

When our hospitals are overrun by people suffering all different kinds of complications from diabetes, heart-disease, and various other issues related to obesity, when are we going to realize the finger should be pointing at US, not the government! 

The president’s proposed plan offers some possible solutions (note I said “possible” — will they work? that remains to be seen) for the current system to cover more of the population, much of which is underserved. However, it doesn’t fix the real problem which is that we as a population are becoming more and more unhealthy!

So what do we do? How do we fix this, other than learning to “just say no” to supersize combos? We have to take responsibility. And that means, on all fronts. That means, we take our own health into our own hands. That means, we make a commitment to get healthy, and stay that way. That means, we seek out better food (preferably locally grown), we find ways to get sufficient exercise that we enjoy, we become more spiritually connected, and we learn about our own health and ways to combat things that might harm it. (Visit www.newholisticliving.com/holisticwellness.html for some ideas.)

That also means, we pay for our own health-care.  That’s right — YOU pay for your own healthcare!  Wow, what a concept. What have we come to as a society, that we expect someone else (the government, insurance companies, etc.) to take on our own personal medical expenses? Remember when you went to see a doctor (or the doctor came to your house), and when  you parted ways, you gave him some cash and said thanks and goodbye? Yeah, I thought not. (Not for most in the last couple of generations, anyway.)

In giving our health-care costs over to the care (or whims) of insurance companies, we have given up yet another aspect of our responsibility over our own health. 

But let’s talk about insurance for a moment.

What is the purpose of insurance anyway? The true purpose and useful place for insurance is in case of an emergency, or “just in case.” Just in case you get in an accident. Just in case your house burns down. Just in case you break your leg. Just in case….you decide to get a flu shot??  Not hardly.

An astronomical part of skyrocketing health-care costs is related to insurance. What should be a fairly simple process has gotten lost in a sea of paperwork, claim denials (did you know insurance companies actually hire people whose job it is to go through  your medical records and find reasons to deny your claims?), and bureacracy.

Let’s stop this nonsense.

Now that is not to say that insurance doesn’t have its place, medically. However, coverage should be “major medical” only, and EVERYONE should have it. If you have a heart attack, and need emergency triple-bypass surgery, you need insurance. If you have a broken leg, and have a bone sticking out, you need insurance. 

And there should be no exclusions for pre-existing conditions of any kind. HOWEVER, that is not to say it should all cost the same — if you’re 100 pounds overweight and have smoked a pack a day for 20 years, you should pay more than me, as you’re way more likely to need that triple-bypass surgery. (Same as the way life insurance companies price their policies based on a rating system.)

But if you need to go to the doctor for your yearly physical, or get a flu shot, or check out your sore throat, insurance has no part in this. (Or at least it shouldn’t.)  This is when you get out your checkbook.

But what about the cost? Medical costs have skyrocketed faster than most of us can even keep up with in recent years. This is due to a number of factors, and many are preventable.

For one thing, by taking responsibility and getting ourselves healthy in the first place, we will be eliminating the largest part of the problem right there (plus you won’t need to go to the doctor as much anyway, right?). Then, once you eliminate the insurance companies (for all but major medical claims), you are going to also get rid of a huge part of the cost.  And third, one of the fastest growing costs is prescription drugs, most of which are pointless, not to mention poisonous, and in many cases (if not most), do more harm than good.

And if you don’t have insurance, yes, prices may seem high if you think about that right now. However, what do you think would happen if no one had this thing we call “health insurance”?  It’s just a matter of supply & demand, then. Prices would come down, because now no one is getting paid, because most people can’t afford health-care at the currently ridiculous prices. (Which are ridiculous, and it’s only getting worse.)

So what would I tell the president? Forget about getting everyone covered by the insurance companies — just shut ‘em down!

Not that this would ever happen, unless someday we actually have a dictator in power, or a monarch of some sort, who just takes over, disregards all the special interests and wealthy companies trying to stick their hands in his pocket, and does what is right for the people who elected him, instead of listening to all the clamoring nonsense around him.

Like I said, not that that would ever happen….

Community Supported Agriculture: A Win-Win-Win Concept

It’s my second year participating in a community supported agriculture program, and I am hooked!

Last year, I loved my CSA so much that I joined two this year! I am splitting them with a couple I know who was also interested, and I’m glad, because I am single, and though I love vegetables, I am practically overwhelmed, even after dividing both of my shares in half!

I’ve been interested in the CSA concept for years. It seems like such an amazingly common-sense, yet innovative idea. You get fresh, healthy, locally grown (and often organic) foods, often at a lower price than what you would find at the supermarket. The farmer gets a built-in market, and usually they get paid at the beginning of the season, when they need it most. And you are helping out the environment by eating locally grown rather than having foods shipped in from other areas (or even other countries), as well as supporting small farms that tend to operate more sustainably and take better care of the soil & water they use.

The problem was, I didn’t know how to find a CSA, or if there even were any in my area. I searched online a few times several years ago, but didn’t have much luck. But in the few years since then, the farming community has embraced the use of the internet, and many farms now have their own websites, which makes it much easier to find participating programs. There are at least 5 or 6 CSAs that deliver locally to my hometown now, and several others in outlying areas in the vicinity.

I’ve told many friends about it, and for the general public, the community supported agriculture concept seems to be a well-kept secret. For those who are unfamiliar with the idea, it is somewhat like a co-op. Individuals subscribe by purchasing a “share” of a given farm’s (or group of farms) harvest for the year. Usually this is done before the start of the season, so you make a one-time payment, and then collect your shares weekly or monthly throughout the harvest season.

Traditionally the concept has been mostly done with vegetables. However, there are all kinds of CSAs cropping up these days, from vegetables & fruits, to dairy and even meats. Here in Ohio, where the growing season is not that long, I subscribe to a vegetable CSA in the summer, and a meat CSA (with one of the same farms) in the winter months, so at least I know I am eating locally in part throughout the year.

One of the farms I am subscribed to is organic. The other has mostly naturally grown produce, except for the fruit. One share I pick up at a local farmer’s market. The other is delivered right to my office!

Right now I am overwhelmed with the summer’s bounty. My refrigerator is filled to overflowing with amazing, fresh vegetables (and my freezer still contains some organic meats from the winter share). It’s been years since I lived on a farm, and with all the years of shopping at supermarkets and just picking up whatever I felt like, I had forgotten what a bounty the summer truly brings…. It makes me feel so much more connected to my environment to only be eating things that are in season. It also forces me to cook more creatively!

Right now, in my fridge I have turnips, turnip greens, sweet corn, green beans, red cabbage, white cabbage, red onions, white onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, three kind of hot peppers, eggplant, summer squash, patty-pan squash, zucchini, broccoli, cantaloupe, and honeydew melon…and probably some other things I’m forgetting. And all of it is organic or naturally grown, and was picked within the last 2 days.

I feel truly blessed. And I am happy to feel like I am contributing to helping others as well — not just the farmers I have come to call friends, but those who use our limited resources and will inhabit our beautiful planet in the future.

I encourage you to look up a CSA in your area today, and see how easy (and delicious!) it is to start making a difference.

For more info on CSAs, as well as my favorite resource for finding local farms in your area, visit our website at http://www.newholisticliving.com/csa.html

Happy eating!

Growing Tomatoes: To sucker, or not to sucker?

Last week, a passing neighbor commented on my exuberant garden. He then offered some words of wisdom, apparently from his non-apartment-dwelling youth, when he grew tomatoes himself. “Do you know how to remove the suckers? That is what will make them produce more tomatoes.”

Having grown up on a farm, I was surprised and a little embarrassed to admit I was not even familiar with the concept. My mother was (and still is) an avid gardener, and I don’t remember her ever mentioning such a thing.

A little research on the internet quickly revealed there are two schools of thought on the topic: Remove the suckers vs. Don’t remove the suckers. (Or if you prefer, the Suckers vs. the Non-Suckers.)

The Sucker camp says you should sucker your tomatoes (remove the new, small stems that grow up in the joints of your plants) in order to make the fruit grow larger (I didn’t actually find anything about the plants then producing MORE fruit, as my neighbor had claimed).

The Non-Suckers say you should not sucker the plants, as the suckers may actually grow more tomatoes themselves, and increase your yield.

(Apparently this also depends on the type of plants — if your tomatoes are “determinant” or “non-determinant”. Determinant plants grow to a certain size and then stop, and produce all their fruit. Suckering these would not really make sense, as when they are done growing, you would want as many branches as possible to produce fruit. Non-determinants continue to grow, adding more leaves and stems even as they are fruiting.)

I have never tried the suckering method, and I don’t believe my mother ever did either. I just removed a few this week, on one plant, so we’ll see if I notice any difference.  I just removed the small ones, as the larger ones looked like they may be planning on blooming, themselves….

I would love to hear comments on other’s experiences with this — do you sucker, or not, and what have your experiences been with either method?

(For other ideas on sustainable gardening or related topics, feel to visit our website at http://www.newholisticliving.com/sustainablegardening.html ).

Have a great week!
Rose.

What’s In It? Evaluating “natural” product labels.

With the plethora of new “natural” and “organic” products on the market, it can be super-confusing to try to figure out which ones to buy! Visiting my local Walmart lately, I noticed an entire section devoted to “natural” beauty care. However, upon examining the labels of some of the skin-care products in this section, I found a lot of chemicals I wasn’t sure I really want on or in my body.

So how do you find products that are truly natural, or organic? First of all, “natural” just means the product contains something somewhere that came from nature. This doesn’t mean the entire product is actually from natural sources. (100% natural is another matter.)  The same thing with the “organic” label.

By law, a product must specify what percentage of the ingredients are actually certified organic. However, a product can claim it is “organic,” even if only one organic ingredient (in sufficent amounts) is present, as long as it specifies in the tiny print on the label, which ingredients are organic.

Here are some helpful tips to navigate through the “natural” beauty product jungle:

1.  Look for products marked “100% Organic”, and also with the “Certifed Organic” sticker. (“100% Natural” is also good, but be aware this does not mean organic.) If you can’t find 100% Organic products (which in some items may be very difficult or impossible to find), go for the highest percentage possible, and try to make sure the other items are at least natural, if not organic.

2. Look for products with ingredients you can identify. I like to only purchase products if I can actually pronounce all of the ingredients!  This doesn’t mean you have to know exactly what everything is. For example you may see the ingredient “rosehip seed oil”, and not know what a rosehip is, but you can at least recognize that it is a natural substance. As an opposite example, recently there has been quite a bit of talk about parabens, and how bad they are for you (many new products even advertise “paraben free!” on the label). Therefore, if you see something like “methylparaben” on the label, you don’t have to know exactly what a paraben is and how it works, to know you should avoid that product.

3. If you are buying all-natural products, be aware that they may have a shorter shelf-life than the usual chemical-laden fare. Therefore, we recommend where possible, that you purchase direct from the manufacturer, so you know the item is fresh. For example, the leading manufacturer of organic beauty products & skin care that we recommend on our website makes all their products in small batches, so that they will be as fresh as possible when you order them. If you purchase their products from another store, you may not know how long they have been sitting on the shelf. (Also check the label carefully, as some may recommend refrigeration.)

4. Seriously, if you can’t pronounce it, it’s probably a chemical you don’t want on or in your body! (With the exception of some products that list natural plant-based ingredients by their scientific names — but usually they will list the common name — e.g. “rosehip seed oil” — as well.) Ingredient lists for most items will also probably be much shorter than for traditional products, as natural products don’t (or shouldn’t!) contain artificial fragrances, dyes, or preservatives.

Hopefully this will serve as a handy checklist, next time you are bogged down in the “natural” beauty product aisle!  Just remember, don’t just look for “natural” or “organic” on the front of the bottle — check the label, and look for “100%”. Also look for a short list of ingredients which you can identify (or at least spell!), and an expiration or “use-by” date.

Happy shopping!  And for our recommendations of our favorite truly natural and organic products (as well as lots of other tips and ideas for avoiding toxins in your home), feel free to stop by our website at www.newholisticliving.com/toxicload.html.

And if you have any other recommendations, feel free to leave a comment!

Rose.

Welcome to our new holistic living blog!

Thanks for visiting our new blog!  We will try to post news or interesting information on various aspects of healthy holistic living, balancing your life, or any other related aspects here weekly (more often if we find something so exciting it can’t wait).

Sometimes we will post reviews of books or products. Other weeks we will summarize interesting articles on health, relationships, spirituality, financial well-being, or other related topics. And sometimes we will just throw something out there to get interesting feedback from our readers.  (You can also always find information on these topics, as well as helpful tips & recommendations, on our website.)

Thanks for visiting, and please come back soon!

Rose.
www.newholisticliving.com