Buyer Beware – 6 Things to Know About Eating Better
In another time I lived in the interior of Venezuela – 50 miles from headhunters in 1 direction and 50 miles from a grocery store in another direction.
Milk for my family was delivered weekly by a Spaniard who owned an area dairy. I got to know him and his cows very well. It wasn’t that I considered him to be so interesting or entertaining. I was afraid of getting milk infected with tuberculosis. I had 2 toddlers and I was doing everything I could to keep them healthy.
Most of us, when asked, will admit to eating a nearly perfect diet. Delve deeper, and you’ll find that everyone’s diet is different. You’ll also find many of the diets are not healthy…some are not even safe.
It’s hard to know which is the correct diet. There are thousands out there. Many are touted as being the best. We can go into a large book store or library and find an extremely generous selection of cookbooks, each promoting a different way of eating. Top off that with the TV Food channels and the internet and everything becomes confusing.
So, what do you do as a reflexologist when your client partner begins to discuss diet or ask questions about digestion issues?
I offer a few sane suggestions for your own diet as well as that of your client partners, friends, neighbors, and anyone else trying to eat better:
Eat whole foods that are fresh and locally grown. I realize that you may have heard/read this before but I offer new twists on the same old sentence.
Eating locally grown food is important. It’s important to not only know that the food is locally grown, but it’s important to know which farm the food came from.
Can you afford a CSA? If your household is too small, split a membership.
Eating locally grown or raised foods includes
fresh vegetables
fresh fruits
whole grains
beans
fish
lean red meat
dairy products.
When you eat whole, fresh, locally grown foods, you’ll be eating food which experiences less processing, packaging, and shipping.
Foods grown in your area can be picked later, and eaten sooner. Overall, this means a better product.
When I think of fresh foods, I think of health promotion. It’s much better to eat an apple from nearby than to eat pears, apples, strawberries or whatever from South America or China.
And, if you know the farm this food comes from, you’re even better off because you’ll know about the pesticides used. You’ll never be able to learn what pesticides were used on food that came from Chile or China, or any other foreign location, no matter what the label tells you. Our government sends few to no inspectors to faraway places to verify what they say they do.
When you eat whole, fresh, locally grown foods, you’ll be eating better quality food offering the opportunity to protect your heart, stabilize your blood sugar, boost your brainpower, and generally improve your health.
Farmers shipping their products long distances focus on growing foods that travel well as opposed to products that taste better.
Begin your quest for locally grown food at a farmers market.
Don’t be shy. Ask your grocery store produce manager where the food comes from. It goes without saying that we need pure foods if we can get them. Organic, non-GMO, etc., are important.
At the very least, buy organic when you can. Here again, it helps to know which farm the food comes from. The term “organic” doesn’t mean what it did in times past. Many farmers claim to sell organic foods today that could not make that claim in the past. This is because the government has relaxed the organic designation guidelines.
If you’re on a budget, it’s important for some foods to be organic. Foods needing to be organic include:
apples
bell peppers
celery
chard
cherries
domestic blueberries
imported grapes
kale
lettuce
nectarines
peaches
potatoes
spinach
strawberries
Foods that do not necessarily need to be eaten in the organic state include:
asparagus
avocados
cabbage
cantaloupe
eggplant
grapefruit
kiwi
mango
onions
pineapple
sweet corn
sweet onions
sweet peas
sweet potatoes
watermelon
We eat many foods over time. I’ve only listed a very few items. However, the 2 lists offer insight into what constitutes a food needing to be organic and a food that may not.
Staying away from boxed and canned foods is important. They are often filled with additives which are not good for the human body. Many boxed and canned items aren’t even foods. They’re products which have been manufactured to eat. In the 21st century, just because something is sold in a food store to eat doesn’t mean it’s a food.
Food shopping in today’s world not only involves selecting items which are foods – whole, fresh, and local – but also being careful where you buy these items. Just because a store claims to be health oriented doesn’t mean that everything it sells is nutritious or even safe.
Approach each item with a questioning attitude. Read the label. If there are a lot of words which are hard to pronounce, return the item to the shelf.
Your grocer is in business to make $$$. Food is put on the shelves to sell. Just because it’s on the shelves doesn’t guarantee that it’s healthy or even safe.
This doesn’t mean that eating can’t be fun. It can be. It’ll be even more fun once you know exactly what you’re eating.
If you can, buy your breads from a local bakery which uses organic whole grains.
Become knowledgeable about your dairy, meat, and fish products. If at all possible, stay away from fish that are farmed.
If you eat meat, eggs, cheese, try to get products coming from animals that are free range, organic fed.
Purchase eggs coming from cage free hens.
Ham, bacon, and smoked fish should have no synthetic nitrates or nitrites.
Meats should be hormone free, free range grazed, and antibiotic free.
I realize that not everyone has access to these foods. We can’t eat what we don’t have access to. I also realize that these foods may be expensive. We also can’t eat what we can’t buy. Everyone faces choices when it comes to food shopping. Staying away from processed foods can free up some funds for fresh, whole, local.
It’s okay to be a food snob only wanting the most nutritious, healthiest food available.
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Peace and food for all
Thurman Greco
9 Important Questions to Ask About Pain
Ubiquitous, pain. Everyone suffers with pain occasionally. Some of us suffer with pain constantly.
Pain comes in many forms:
Pins and needles
Searing
Hot
Cold
Constant
Deep
Screaming.
Everyone has names for pain.
Reflexologists, whenever a client partner begins to discuss pain with you, ask the following questions:
How long have you had this pain?
If your pain is not constant, does it come and go on a certain or random schedule?
Do particular activities initiate the pain?
What does it feel like?
Does it have a shape?
What does it look like?
What does it sound like?
What does it smell like?
Is there a story connected to this pain? Do you know it?
Is there a word that will help you heal?
Now, speak to your pain.
Ask your pain if you can work together to heal.
Is there a word to help you heal? Pause a moment to receive this word.
Then, find out what color this word is going to be. Now, repeat this word several times as you experience the color bringing relaxation to your entire being.
As you experience this, know that relaxation is important to pain because when we relax, we heal.
Often, just going through the above questions offers relief. Sometimes we have pain which has a past life origin. These questions can help reveal this situation. People who have tried everything with no luck are able to have breakthroughs.
But, even if the questions don’t seem to offer immediate insight, they are very powerful and are quite helpful.
Reflexology can be a powerful pain management tool if used in the right way. In the near future, I’ll be offering a series of posts sharing pain management sessions.
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Media provided by Renee Ruwe
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
7 Ways to be Light, Vibrant, Joyful
.Surround yourself with things, people who make you feel light, vibrant, and joyful.
This can be a variety of things. For some, this can be
colors,
music,
books,
plants.
But, whatever it is, surround yourself with things that make you feel great, good, vibrant, joyful.
You may find yourself painting your walls or bringing more flowers home or showcasing a shelf of your books. The important thing is that you are releasing endorphins when you seek joy, renewal.
As a reflexologist, let the good, vibrant, joyful attributes be visible in your practice and your healing space. This effort will reflect itself in what your client partners take away from your sessions.
Spend a little time becoming aware of these endorphin moment(s). Once you know what makes you happy, you can put more focus on that outcome. When you are focused on a joyful outcome, you can be happy for longer periods.
Laughing comes easier.
Gratitude comes easier.
You’ll also be able to focus on the things in your life that you enjoy. Your happiness will multiply then, because what you focus on grows. You will encourage homeostasis.
As you share your happiness, others will begin to enjoy these moments as well. So you’ll create a ripple effect for your friends, neighbors, family, client partners. This can have far-reaching consequences of the positive kind.
Happiness is a rare commodity these days. Find it. Share it. Spread it around.
One of the pluses of being light, vibrant, and joyful is that these attitudes don’t take a lot of $$$. Happiness comes with gratitude and a smile. It can begin with a small plant or a book by your favorite chair.
Enjoy sunrises and sunsets and delicious smells like grass and fresh leaves.
If you feel that being light, vibrant, and joyful is difficult, it’s time to do something for someone else. The happiest people I know are those who have learned to share a most precious commodity: a smile and a little time.
Tap into your creativity. This will allow you to relax, have more fun, and explore life’s wonders.
Thank you for reading this blog/book. This is a series of articles focusing on ways to enhance wellness for yourself, the reflexologist, and your client partners.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Listen!
What is your body telling you? Listen!
When you listen, all four parts of your self will tell you what you need to hear: Your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual selves will speak to you.
Are you tired?
Do you suffer from a sleep deficit?
Are you unable to sleep because you are burning the candle at both ends?
Are you deeply troubled?
Are you studying for an exam?
Are you trying to get a promotion at work?
When do you need to rest?
Do you need to play?
How long has it been since you just had fun?
What is your work situation?
We all have cycles. What are yours?
When are you at your best?
Keep a regular, predictable schedule every day of the year. Listen! Your internal clock will develop a schedule of eating, sleeping, and exercising at the same time each day. Respect the regularity of this schedule.
Schedule some relaxation time each day. Give your brain a break. Let it review the day’s experiences. Allow your brain to turn events into memories. This will encourage the learning process. Allow your brain to refresh itself.
Listen! Every part of your body stores emotions, memories, thoughts, based on what the body part does for you. For example, your ears will store these emotions, memories, thoughts, that relate to hearing. Become more aware of events that contribute to issues or diseases in the particular parts of your body.
Find time to move your body at intervals throughout the day. This means taking the stairs whenever possible. Walk when you talk on the phone. Park farther away from your destination and walk to your destination.
When we ignore our bodies, stress, tension, fear, frustration, depression, anxiety, and disease set in.
As a reflexologist, you will improve both your life and your career significantly if you honor your circadian clock. Take a break every couple of hours to check in with yourself and see how things are going.
When you begin to honor your clock, you will find yourself keeping a regular schedule. This regular schedule is a tonic for some. For others, it is a wonder drug.
Your body will love you for this because it loves predictability. Stress is related more to lack of a schedule than to finances, marital problems, children, or work.
When you listen to your needs and offer your body predictability, you invite homeostasis into your life.
If you are new to this blog, I wrote a series of posts in which I offered suggestions and guidelines about how to listen to your body and also how to communicate with different parts of your body to bring about healing and homeostasis. You can find them in contents section of this blog. They were in late 2014 and early 2015. Most of the posts were entitled “Spirituality of……”
Teach your client partners about their circadian clocks. You will then improve their lives and careers. How cool is that?
Thanks for reading this blog/book.
I hope you found this guideline helpful. Please leave your comments below and check out the other posts.
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Art provided by Jennette Nearhood
