Simplicity

W

wendyloo

Cathlete
What are some simple things you do for yourself, your health, your sanity?
Health: I don't drink coffee or soda. ( I don't even want to, and I don't even think about the fact that I don't drink these things until I am around people who do. At Christmas it was strange to me that my whole family had tea or coffee every morning, and the men all drank pepsi and coke like I drink water. I know caffeine can be ok in small quantities. I just stopped one day years and years ago, and can't imagine drinking them now. They don't quench my thirst.)

Mental/emotional health, and wallet: I don't look at catalogues or order from them. ( When I see all the cool stuff, I just want more. If I go shopping, I buy stuff I don't need. So to simplify my life I have stopped looking at any catalogues that come to me-- hardly any since I don't order anymore--and I rarely if ever go shopping unless I really NEED something. Then I try not to go to a mall, so I won't see things that I want but don't need.)

Sanity: I made a grocery list on the computer which I have printed out several copies of . It has on it practically everything we ever eat, so whenever we go shopping we just check off what we need. It has really made life simple!

Myself: I spend lots of time with children. I love to be with these people who are so innocent, and who love life and laugh so much more than adults do. Being with kids has made me worry less about the unimportant things and has made me appreciate how wonderful things are in my life.

How about you guys?
Wendy
 
Wow Wendy!! I think that what you do is wonderful!! Unfortunately, I can not say the same of myself. I do try to keep life as simple as I can though. I try to get 8 hours of sleep a night. I do make a grocery list every week to keep from buying a bunch of stuff my family and I don't need. I make time for myself everyday. Like my yoga or a nice hot bath with lit candles. Also, it may not make my life simple, but I can't imagine NOT doing it, I coach my kids and kids of my community in sports. I've coached T-ball, soccer, and cheerleading. When I'm with all of these kids, I am reminded how precious life is and that so many kids get put down by peers or even family members. I like to build these kids (and my own) up and praise them for their accomplishments, rather than put them down for their mistakes. Life is short. While I do have many bad habits, I do my best to make it as healthy and happy for me and my family as I can. Sometimes doing that is not simple, but it's always worth it. Wether it be exercising, trying to eat right, coaching, or even helping my kids with their homwork. Simplicity is best, but even when it can't be simple, enjoy every moment there is of it, because it will be gone all too quickly.


Aimee
 
I play with my horse. When you are with a horse, you must concentrate totally or you can get hurt. I, too, found myself going crazy with the "have-to's" in my life until I realized that I was the one who had largely put them there.

To that end, I try not to be so fanatical about cleaning the house. That's still a challenge for me, but I really try to prioritize my time. If I die tomorrow, no one will care if my baseboards are perfectly clean....know what I mean?
 
What a cool post, Wendy! I love it!

let's see...

Health; I only drink water, with just a once-in-a-blue moon treat of a soda (never a diet cola), I food combine, I make sure I am always looking forward to my workouts so I stay consistent for the right reasons,I keep studying and learning more and more about nutrition and the way it relates to health and performance

Mental/Emotional Health; as bad as it will sound, I avoid frequent phone calls with my mother. I'm just realizing, at the age of 30, that maybe we just aren't meant to be buddies. I just lost my granny, who was my best buddy and a daily phone call for me, and I know now that mom can't take that place. I find I am much more relaxed and stress free when keeping a certain amount of distance and autonomy from my family, who is pretty much all obese, unhealthy and completely stressed out. I'm a much healthier, happier person since maintaining that circle of sanity around my own life. And I play with my 3 kitties on and off all day long. Seems to relax me instantly!

Myself; I watch hockey games whenever I can, scream and yell and it feels like I had a great therapy session afterwards. I'm broadening my own horizons, like trying and discovering the joys of wine recently, etc. Starting school and beginning the road to my dream job as an athletic trainer for a pro team. Being truly happy in my own skin and feeling really satisfied and happy with myself for the first time in my life.

And little conveniences, like using Homegrocer, so I avoid stuff I know stresses me out; long lines, crowds, etc.
 
That is Great...

IF you can separate your being from your family (Mom included)-not exclude, just separate.....you are really grounded fundamentally and the irony is that your relationship with Mom, Granny, et. al. has allowed you to do that. I APPLAUD that!!! You are your own person and where it separates from them, so be it...life's too short.
 
RE: That is Great...

Oh, thank you for that, murph. Sometimes I feel like I must be a monster or a bad daughter for feeling that way. My therapist recently asked me an interesting question. He said "If you were to meet your mother as just some person at a party or through a friend, would you like her?" I had to think hard on that one and it's hard to be honest, but I realized, I don't think so. I might think she seemed nice enough and funny, but I know I wouldn't be thinking to myself "now there's someone I want to hang out with." So he helped me to start realizing that I don't have to be best friends with my mom, and I was damn lucky to have had that with my granny. I take for granted sometimes how rare that was.

My mom's kind of shallow, she has this Frasier Crane thing that she's well aware of and she thinks it's cute and that it's good to be a snob. I used to buy into that and laughed with her, but now I see she looks down on too much too often. She cuts herself off from happiness by placing herself above others all the time. I don't want that. And I don't want to miss expriencing things and finding the fun in life because certain things may not be "classy" or "highbrow" enough, you know?

Anyway, too much psychobabbling here...sorry! But I really really appreciate your support. Coming here to chat with you guys has become a favorite thing and a part of almost every day. I think we have such a wonderful, diverse, intelligent and warm bunch of chickies and men here.

I hope everyone has a healthy, wonderful, happy weekend!
 
Can I bug you again Lex......

....you mean you NEVER drink diet soda?Ever?I have found myself really hopelessly dependent on it and any information that might strengthen my resolve to get off of it would be great-you seem to be extremely knowledgable about health and nutrition so I consider your opinion pretty valuable.Also,when you said you food combine,do you mean like Fit For Life (no protein and starch at the same time,only fruit for breakfast etc.)?Just curious...:-shy
 
RE: Can I bug you again Lex......

I LOVE how women can talk!!! It's too fun....first, our relationship with Mom; then diet soda...all important!! Ha-ha, I'm really enjoying it all. Love, Murph
 
KZN-diet soda

If you want horror stories, every week I meet a new person with an aspertame nightmare. A grandmother who has a neck tumor on the spinal column, made up totally of the byproducts of aspertame. They settled her case out of court really quickly. She only drank one packet a day in her coffee for one year.
My internist's nurse went through a whole three months of testing this year--they were thinking MS, fibromyalgia, lupus, etc--turned out to be aspertame poisoning. One month off it, she's fine. Consumption--2 diet sodas a day during the work week. She figured it out herself surfing the net.
They are finding that aspertame contributes to tumors in the brain, uterous, and back areas. It is especially bad if you have uteran fibroids or have a familly history. It exacerbates PMS. When it breaks down in the body, one of the byproducts is formaldehyde.
Even knowing all this, I too have to fight myself. I LOVE diet pepsi with a passion. The FDA approved aspertame way too quickly under pressure from the Diet Product Lobbyists, in my opinion. We all really need to try and get off of it, who knows what we will be finding 20 years from now?
 
RE: KZN-diet soda

How about Splenda (sucralose)?Anybody heard anything about that?:eek: I've started in on Diet RC because Nutrition Action magazine listed Sucralose as "safe" and aspartame as "questionable".(Diet RC is sweetened with sucralose).
 
RE: KZN-diet soda

How about Splenda (sucralose)?Anybody heard anything about that?:eek: I've started in on Diet RC because Nutrition Action magazine listed Sucralose as "safe" and aspartame as "questionable".(Diet RC is sweetened with sucralose).
 
RE: Can I bug you again Lex......

Hey, sorry I didn't see your post for a while.

Anyway, I think I've had about 4 colas in the last year and they were all regular. It's like a huge treat when you never drink soda. I will never, ever in my life eat or drink or chew on anything with an artificial sweetener in it again. I've been totally off that for years. You might actually be dependent more on caffeine in cola than the actual cola. Is it the taste you can't do without? Do you drink water at all?

Thanks, by the way, for saying you value my opinion. That's such a tremendous compliment to me!

As for food combining, yes, I follow the guidelines in Fit for Life, which I believe is what Marilu Henner summarizes in her first book, The Total Health Makeover (a favorite of mine.) I don't necessarily have fruit for breakfast, but I do food combine in terms of what I eat with what. I also like to stick with hydrating things until lunchtime, like water or a soy smoothie or fruit, as the Fit for Life book explains. I eat most or all of my food for the day between noon and about 8 at the latest. Nighttime is for assimilating and cleansing your body of what you ate and didn't use, so in the morning you're ridding yourself of that and need lots of hydrating. It took some getting used to, but I did it in increments, slowly, over about 2 years. Now, I swear by it. I cheat and give myself little treats here and there, like a burger on a bun or something improperly combined, but I do always notice the effects. As long as it's infrequent I can get away with it, but it will always at least give me a little gas. If I did it more, I'd have heartburn and my yeast condition would flare up again. I honestly think food combining is THE best way to help your body to be as healthy and nutritionally efficient as possible.

That's probably all more than you wanted to know, right? But I suppose everyone on here knows I tend to babble on about stuff like this!
 
RE: KZN-diet soda

One last thing...just remember that FDA standards for what is "safe" are low and they change all the time. The entire story of how Aspartame ended up being approved in the US is a sordid one all about power and money, not public health. DId you all know that when it was first introduced here in the mid 70s it was shelved as unsafe? Anyway, I don't want to get on that soapbox, but suffice it to say, about sucralose and ALL artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes...

Nutrasweet was once deemed a "natural" sweetener that was "as safe to eat as sugar." No kidding. Exact words from old commercials. Now we know otherwise. Who knows what we'll know about sucralose and other sweeteners a few years from now. But if you ingest enough of it, by then it won't matter that you stop. Point being, take all the info about new products like that with a silo of salt. They want to sell a product, they control what is released to the public in terms of info and just because it is legally allowed to be sold and consumed here does NOT mean it is safe. Not even close. Better to err on the side of caution. 10 years ago, if you said to anyone that you thought Aspartame was "questionable" they would have said you were nuts. I'm sure they'd say the same about sucralose now. Food for thought.
 
Thank you Lex!! ..

Thanks Lex-I think deep down I know that sucralose is probably not the free ride they say it is but when you're hooked on something it's easy to be lulled into thinking it's okay.I do drink a lot of water,especially first thing in the morning and while I'm exercising,but during the day it seems a lot of water is being replaced by the diet soda.It is the caffeine I think-once I tried to kick it cold turkey and got a screeching headache.Recently I started having green and herbal tea to try to replace it but I just wound up using a lot of artificial sweetener in that too!I guess if it isn't water I just want it to be sweet.Old habits die hard.About the food combining,I was interested in your feeling on it because I used to be a huge Fit For Life person myself,but kind of "lost it" during my first pregnancy with all the cravings and nausea and never was able to get back to that.(Being married to a "life's too short so I should be able to eat what I want 'cause we've all got to die of something anyway" kind of guy doesn't help!)Now that I am 30 and have the three kids and all the stress,fatigue etc.I feel like something is telling me that I can't just shove any old thing in my mouth and expect to take my health for granted-especially since I really don't feel that healthy lately!!Oh well,sorry to ramble,I guess I'm just anxious for guidance.
 
What a great post this is!

I came on the website today because, for the first time in weeks, I'm feeling ready to tackle the world (or a tough Cathe workout!). I've been in some kind of funk this month - January blah's, I suppose...This post sort of drew my attention to the fact that you can do something small for yourself, like drinking water instead of coffee/soda pop/junk! Thanks, Wendy - I'm going to apply this idea and see what I can come up with!
Tricia
 
RE: Thank you Lex!! ..

I swear by food combining. That and the anti-Candida diet I did changed my life. I will eat this way for the rest of my life. The nice thing is that even though my honey didn't need to do the Candida diet, which food combining is a huge part of, he got interested in what I was doing and now he only food combines too. We'll both have treats sometimes where we just eat a sandwhich or something we know isn't combined properly, but I'd say about 97% of the time we both do it. Just makes my digestion a thousand times better. No gas, no bloating, no heartburn, no feeling too full or heavy or sleepy after meals. I just love it. In fact, for my college health class we have to do a 5 minute presentation on any topic we want relating to our personal health. I am planning on doing a short presentation to introduce food combining to everyone. I figure it's done so much for me, even if just one person in class is intrgued, tries it and sticks to it I will have helped that person tremendously.

I'm 30 too, by the way. I turn 31 in April. But I feel younger, happier and more healthy and energetic now than when I was 18. I honestly owe a lot of that to food combining, among other things.
 
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