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I hope you’re sitting down for this one…

It’s called “Buckets for the Cure.”

In the guise of raising money for breast cancer, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure (the largest grass-roots breast cancer group in the world) has teamed up with fast food giant KFC.

And decided to sell KFC chicken in pink cardboard buckets…

Yes, the Colonel is now pretty in pink… for The Cure.

And why not? After all, the KFC franchise is in business to make money. The bigger question is what is the Komen foundation thinking?

Once again, it becomes obvious that Cancer is little more than big business…

Komen is not at all selective about what causes cancer, or what might cure cancer. (They still recommend mammograms…a subject we can explore more in depth in a future issue.) This KFC campaign is a perfect example of “greed-colored-pink.”

It makes you wonder who Komen will partner with next… Cigarette makers? Pesticide manufacturers? If the only criteria is potential for profit – and pink packaging – then anyone is a candidate.

The issue of cancer and diet…

The outcry over this marketing campaign has been enormous. Both KFC and Komen have been tarred with the same brush. What is really going on here?

Evidently, the idea of buying fast food chicken to support a cure for breast cancer just doesn’t sit very well.

That’s understandable. Fast food chicken is coated in starch – which creates carcinogens called acrylamides when fried. Acrylamides are suspected of not only increasing the risk of breast cancer, but ovarian and endometrial cancer.

Not the message you want to send in a campaign that is supposedly geared to research that would prevent and fight breast cancer.

But that’s the Cancer Industry at work. Here at THB, we expose medical mainstream vested interests all the time. As unsettling as this newest “pink-marketing” campaign is, it is really nothing new.

However, it does highlight a vital issue in the fight against cancer…

Your diet really is one of your best weapons against cancer!

The Komen foundation may be taking it very lightly, but simple changes in your diet can make a big difference in your risk of a lot of different cancers.

It’s a choice you get to make three times a day, every day.

There’s a wealth of research done on how diet influences health. Let’s ignore the Pink Buckets for now and take a look at how your own food choices stack up…

The Cancer Fighters

Cruciferous Vegetables

Surely you knew these would be at the top of the list. Broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. All of these contain chemicals that seem to turn on your body’s natural detoxifying enzymes. They also block tumor growth and encourage cancer cells to eliminate themselves.

One study showed that the compounds from these vital veggies shrunk prostate tumors to half their size in one month.

Tomatoes

The juicy red color comes from a powerful antioxidant called lycopene. Many studies have shown lycopene to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. It also inhibits cancer cell growth in breast, lung and uterine cancers. Lycopene appears to interfere with abnormal cell growth. And it has a strengthening effect on the immune system. Cooked tomato products make lycopene the most available for the body to use.

Dark, leafy greens

Spinach, kale, swiss chard and other greens are high in carotenoids – antioxidants that destroy free radicals before they can damage your cells. One recent study showed that green leafy vegetables definitely reduces the risk of lung cancer.

Berries

Strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, raspberries and blackberries are loaded with polyphenols that inhibit tumor growth. In tests, extracts of strawberry reduced the growth of breast cancer cells by 53% and prostate cancer cells by 43%.6 All berries seem to help destroy cancer cells in the colon.

Sulfurous Foods

Garlic, onions, leeks, shallots and chives promote the death of cancer cells in the colon, lung, breast and prostate. Garlic, in particular, reduces the risk of colon cancer. It also helps fight the bacteria H. pylori, which can cause stomach cancer.

Fatty Fish

The risk of cancer is significantly lower in people who eat fish at least twice a week.9 Small fish like anchovies, sardines and small mackerel have fewer environmental toxins. Wild-caught salmon is also a good source of healthy omega-3 fats.

Grass-fed Beef

Grass-fed beef is much lower in fat than a grain-fed steer. It is much higher in omega-3s that can lower your risk of cancer. Omega-3s dramatically slow the growth of cancer and keep it from spreading.

Spices

Several spices have anti-inflammatory and tumor-fighting powers. Curcumin goes after cancer cells. So does ginger and turmeric. And like garlic, turmeric attacks the inflammation caused by H. pylori.

Green Tea

The polyphenols in green tea are cancer terminators. Cultures that drink a lot of green tea have a much lower incidence of cancer overall. In a three year study of women with ovarian cancer, green tea inhibited tumor growth. The women who drank at least one cup of green tea a day had a 56% better survival rate.

There are lots more cancer-fighting foods, of course, but making an effort to get as many of the ones above into your regular diet will go a long way in fighting off cancer.

But we still need to take a quick look at the foods that don’t do you any favors…

Foods to Avoid

Processed Meats

Cured meats almost always contain sodium nitrites. Ham, bacon, sausage, cold cuts and hot dogs wouldn’t look so good without them. Nitrites are a color fixer. They make meat that would normally be putrid gray look pink and fresh. But when you eat these foods, and your body starts to digest them, the nitrites are converted to nitrosamine, a carcinogen. This increases your risk of stomach cancer, colon cancer, and pancreatic cancer.

Fried Foods

French fries, chips, doughnuts and other commercially fried foods are diet disasters on so many levels. Frying in hydrogenated oils at high temperatures creates the acrylamides I mentioned before. And the effect on your waistline can be deadly. Obesity is a known cancer risk factor, resulting in 100,000 cases of cancer each year.

Sugar and Simple Carbohydrates

These foods are like rocket fuel when you eat them. Your blood glucose goes up and stays up until it can be normalized by insulin. That causes more than one problem. First, it contributes to overweight and obesity as mentioned before. Then, there’s the fact that it really is rocket fuel.

While it’s true that all cells are fed by sugar, cancer cells have a special appetite for glucose. When you eat sugar, you are feeding them with their favorite growth factor. And simple carbs do pretty much the same thing. One shocking study revealed that people who drink two or more sweetened soft drinks per week have a much higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

What about supplements?

There is a place for supplements in your life. A good multivitamin can be good insurance. You can determine other needs with your own health care professional.

But there is no substitute for real, whole foods. Despite all the research, we still don’t know about every nutrient that might be in healthy foods. Or how all the various nutrients work together naturally.

Thank goodness Big Pharma can’t patent broccoli. They’d extract what they think the active ingredient is… synthesize it… and charge a monopoly price for it. And it might never work like the real thing.

No… real, whole foods are the way to go. Organic if possible. Treat yourself to the whole rainbow of fruits, vegetables and healthy fish and meat.

And if you want to donate to the cause of finding a cure for breast cancer or any other cancer, forget the obligatory pink crusades.

Make a donation directly to a trusted organization that reflects healthy approaches to prevention and treatment of cancer. One you might want to check out is the Pine Street Foundation (pinestreetfoundation.org).

Leave the heartless marketing schemes to the vested interests who are making money from cancer. Recognize their agenda and steer clear. There are much better ways to stay healthy and cancer-free.

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“First, look in the mirror. Second, while assessing your image, factor in the premise that other people see you as 20 percent better-looking than you see yourself. It’s true.”

Those words came from Dr. Eva C. Ritvo, coauthor of The Beauty Prescription: The Complete Formula for Looking and Feeling Beautiful.

I tried hard to remember them while looking at the picture of the ape in the navy blazer.

Twenty percent more attractive? That’s two whole points on a 1-10 scale. I can live with that.

The cover of Dr. Ritvo’s book beckons with the promise, “A Beverly Hills dermatologist and a South Beach psychiatrist share their secrets.”

Dr. Ritvo is the South Beach psychiatrist. She has impressive credentials as a doctor and as an author.

So when I was trying to find the latest breakthroughs in health and beauty, her name kept popping up.

And when I asked her if she would be willing to share some of her secrets with the THB readership, she was only too happy to help.

Read on for all of the best undercover beauty secrets from a certifiable beauty expert.

Really? Twenty Percent More Beautiful?

Before we go any further, let’s go back to this idea of becoming 20 percent more beautiful in seconds. I was a bit skeptical at first. How is that possible?

As Dr. Ritvo explained, “Combining what we have noted in our clinical experience with information from psychological studies, we find that women view themselves as approximately 20 percent less attractive than others perceive them.

“Your brain is a tougher critic of your looks than Simon Cowell, of American Idol, could ever be.”

Fortunately, there is good news.

“You can make your brain your greatest beauty ally. By giving yourself permission to look in the mirror in a more positive way, you’ll see yourself looking better already.”

Dr. Ritvo’s book starts with a quote from Salma Hayek — a certifiable beauty — that I think makes this point especially well.

“People often say that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder,” Hayek said.

“This empowers us to find beauty in places where others have not dared to look, including inside ourselves.”

Beauty Buddies

That’s all well and good. But what happens when you’re not feeling very empowered? What happens when you start to get down on yourself? Sooner or later it happens to everyone.

That, says Dr. Ritvo, is why you get a “beauty buddy.”

A beauty buddy, she explained, is simply a friend who shares your beauty regimen and supports you as you work toward your inner and outer goals.

Beauty buddies are friends who are “there for each other at the gym or the hair salon, and in times when they might not be at their most beautiful.

“Having beauty buddies isn’t just about being social. Being with other women actually makes us feel better.

“A UCLA study conducted in 2002 suggests that friendships between women release more of the hormone oxytocin, which counters stress hormones and promotes relaxation.

“So, that wonderful belonging, loved feeling you get from going to the spa with your best friend isn’t all in your head.

“It’s caused by chemicals sent throughout your body that support your mental and physical health and make you look better in the process.”

Sounds like a win-win to me. I guess us guys are just out of luck.

Give Yourself a Faith Lift

Beauty in the modern world is a tricky business.

“The good news,” says Dr. Ritvo, “is the rapidly shifting landscape — including new scientific and medical research — gives women more ways than ever to be healthier and look and feel better than at any time in the past.

“But the flow of new information and opportunity is a little dizzying.

“So even if you’re a woman determined to improve yourself and be attractive and magnetic on your own terms, it can be tough to know where to start.

“Start with what you’re doing right now,” she said. You’re reading this article.

“You’re taking the time to listen to physicians who know the truth: that if you try to emulate the women you see in magazines in order to chase some ephemeral standard of beauty, you’ll always lose.

“But when you bring out the gifts you already possess, you’ll always win.

“Think of it as pulling yourself up by your bra straps.

“That takes faith — faith in who you are and who you can become, faith in your ability to change things that may seem impossible, and faith in the idea that other people can see you differently than they do today.

“We know you already have some of that faith, because you’re here. So … brava to you for taking this big step.”

The Beauty-Brain Loop

We’ve already spent a lot of time talking about things that people don’t usually associate with beauty. Friendship, faith — when are we going to start talking about real health and beauty?

Actually, we already are.

Says Dr. Ritvo, “Your emotional health, self-esteem, and self-confidence shape your physical beauty.

“At the same time, your health, appearance, and physical well-being affect your state of mind.

“It’s a two-way feedback loop that we call the Beauty-Brain Loop.

“The Beauty-Brain Loop embodies the fundamental physics of magnetism. It is a holistic cycle with four interwoven states.”

1. Inner Beauty

Inner beauty is “your mental and emotional wellness: self-awareness, self-esteem, and confidence.

“Inner beauty means constantly taking an honest personal inventory of how you look and how you feel about yourself.

“It means loving your strengths and accepting your weaknesses, changing what you can and accepting what you cannot.

“It’s your attitude toward the world, your cognitive skills in handling stress, and your ability to see beauty around you.”

2. Health

“This part of the loop is about taking care of your body from head to toes and from gut to skin.

“Physical health is shaped by your workout habits, your nutrition, and the amount of nightly sleep you get. It’s certainly about how you care for and protect your skin and hair and, without question, how stress impacts your body.

“Good health is beautiful.”

3. Outer Beauty

“Your appearance is your outer beauty: skin, hair, fitness, clothes, nails, makeup, and more.

“This is the surface beauty that truly does influence our health, happiness, social station, and success.

“It’s the packaging that both conceals and advertises the woman within.”

4. Environment

“Nowhere is the power of the Beauty-Brain Loop more obvious than in how your environment responds to you.

“You can see it all around you: people who feel good not only look good but also are magnetic.

“They receive the job offers, get out of traffic tickets, and score the hot table at the restaurant nobody else can even get into.

“Luck seems to break their way, but it’s not luck. It’s the power some women and men have to make other people feel good and want to return the favor.

“Your environment is the reward channel of the loop, and when it’s giving you positive feedback you feel fantastic mentally and physically.

“We also advocate building a beautiful environment — surrounding yourself with beauty in nature, in your home, and in your relationships.”

Working the Loop

“The Beauty-Brain Loop,” Dr. Ritvo told me, “has no beginning and no end.

“Each stage affects all the others; everything you do shapes how you feel about yourself and therefore how attractive you are.

“The interactions are profound and inescapable.”

That means that anything you do to improve one stage will improve all the others. And the best news is that you can improve your body.

“Your body is the hand of cards you’re dealt by your genetic heritage, and that’s something you don’t have any say in.

“But just because you’re dealt this hand doesn’t mean you have to fold. You can play smart and improve your cards. A lot.

“We know women whose bodies are hardly perfect, but hook them up to a cardiac stress test machine and they’re ready to run a 10K. They work out regularly and eat great, and they’re very fit because of it.

“Know what?

“They’re happy. They’re magnetic. They feel like a million bucks and it’s obvious.

“Exercise is a great mood booster, but that’s not the only reason. They have megawatts of energy and the peace of mind that comes with knowing they’re taking care of themselves.

“They know they’ve made the most of the hand of cards their DNA dealt them.

“Forget about weight. Think fit. Think healthy. Think strong and flexible and lean and energetic.

“Bring out the peak of what your genetics will allow by committing to healthful habits, and you’ll feel like those ladies do. If you end up with a body that has people mistaking you for an aerobics teacher, that’s a bonus.”

What Have We Learned?

“Why do you think you judge yourself to be 20 percent less attractive than others find you?” Dr. Ritvo asked me.

I shrugged. I hadn’t realized there was going to be a pop quiz.

“Because in the mirror, you’re just your looks,” she said. “Many people stand before the glass as though they’re having a mug shot taken. There’s none of the personality, fire, or swagger that they exhibit in the real world.

“Your reflection is simply not the whole you. Others also see your charisma, wit, kindness, empathy, intellect, talent — whatever makes you special. You’re far more than the sum of your parts.

“That’s what the world sees.”

And “that, in a nutshell, is The Beauty Prescription.

“There are many definitions of beauty and many ways to be beautiful. You’ve always known this, but in a culture filled with overpowering images of one kind of female beauty, it’s easy to forget, making you feel inadequate.

“Our mission in [the] book is to remind you that though you can’t change your genetic makeup, many of the most compelling aspects of beauty are completely within your power to change, bringing you benefits that are both more rewarding and more enduring,” including:

• Greater confidence.

• Stronger self-esteem.

• Better health.

• More joy from life.

• And lasting beauty that shines for everyone to see.

Now that’s a prescription you’ll want to fill. Doctor’s orders.

To Your Health,

Michael Noltemeyer
Managing Editor
Total Health Breakthroughs

[ED. NOTE: Eva C. Ritvo, M.D., a board-certified psychiatrist, is vice chair and associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, where she has a unique joint appointment in the Department of Dermatology. She is the former chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida. A published author, Dr. Ritvo has appeared as an expert on Today and Extra, speaks internationally, and has been quoted in many national publications.]

Most people sabotage their health, wellness and success because… they don’t use their brain the right way.

Your brain has virtually unlimited power and ability, but you must learn how it works in order to use it efficiently enough to create the life of your dreams. 

If you have been reading any of the wonderful self-help books that have been published in the last 30 years, you may have thought that the foundation for health, wellness and success  is the skill of positive thinking, learning to elicit powerful mind/body states or developing a healthy self-esteem. 

While a strong foundation is imperative, you may be surprised to hear it is never the place to start in the process of building.

Every experienced builder knows the first step is always to check for bedrock before you lay a foundation.  The bedrock on which to build the life of your dreams is learning how to monitor and transform your questions…the questions you are constantly asking yourself. 

Here is what any reputable brain researcher would tell you about that grey matter you carry around inside your head:

• The brain, by its very nature, must answer every question you pose.
• When you ask a question, your subconscious mind springs into action and starts pulling from any of the estimated 10 million facts you have stored as probable answers to your question.
• The subconscious is not logical at all, and does not concern itself with the outcome this answer will have on your mind and body.
• The body immediately recognizes the direction your mind is taking and automatically registers a matching body state.
• Constantly asking ourselves questions is such a natural and instinctive process to learning and being –we rarely even realize we are doing it several thousand times a day.

The more we learn how to harness the power of our natural brain processes, by monitoring and transforming the questions we ask ourselves, the greater opportunity we have to build a beautiful life.

Here’s how to start the process:

Step 1. Take a moment to check in with your body. Use your body as the ultimate feedback mechanism it is by taking the time to notice when it is registering a negative mood or mind/body feeling state.

Step 2. Identify the negative question creating your negative mood. It isn’t as hard as it sounds — typically, you’ll recognize it as one you have been repeatedly asking yourself and, perhaps, even muttering under your breath.

Step 3. Notice how your body responds.  When you concentrate on this question, notice where your body registers a response (stomach knots up, chest feels heavy, throat constricts, neck aches, or head pounds.)

Step 4. Transform your question with the magic word, HOW.  Nearly every negative question starts with a “Why.”  The magic word “How” empowers you to strike bedrock and begin anchoring a beautiful question. 

For example, Cindy, one of my client’s — when faced with the anxiety of losing her job — made this simple, yet powerful, shift with the magic word “how:”     

Cindy’s negative question:
“What am I going to do if I lose my job?”

Cindy’s transformation:
“How am I going to handle changes in my life?”

It is easy to understand the difference even this simple shift will make in the outcome of her mood and her ability to take action in life.

Step 5. Add exciting, wonderful words until your mind, body and spirit signals you have built something beautiful. The power of your question is dependent upon the power the words you select has on you.  Cindy continued to polish her question until these shining words appeared:

“How can I trust that this momentary obstacle is a necessary step on my journey toward achieving my full potential?”

Notice Cindy’s addition of power words such as “trust,” and “momentary” combined with wonderful phrases like “necessary step,” “journey toward,” and “achieving my full potential.”   What power words can you select that would transform and ready you to confidently move forward toward a life of your dreams?

Have the courage to continue to play with your question by adding positive words that imbue you with power and purpose — each time checking in with your body — and soon your mind will clear, your body will relax and your spirit will soar.  

[Ed. Note: C. Dean Hall, M.S., is a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist, author, speaker and one of the most experienced hypnotherapists in the nation.  His weekly advice column Thinking Like a Therapist is published in several newspapers across the nation.  Widely regarded by his colleagues as a clinical innovator, Dean has developed several therapeutic programs and CDs for stress management, published two surgery preparation programs and written two books.  You can find out more about Dean at www.cdeanhall.com.]

He didn’t want to go back to work but he also didn’t know what to do with himself.  He felt he was no longer contributing to society.  In addition, he was broke.  He wasn’t in poverty; he just didn’t have any money.  He and his wife live on a fixed income and it doesn’t allow them to do many things.  His 401k has taken a hit and his retirement plan doesn’t look like what he was told it would.

Even his marriage is on the rocks.  He and his wife are “at each other” all the time because they are always home together without a break.

I wish this story were unique.  I wish I hadn’t heard it before, but unfortunately I hear something similar daily.  People find themselves at the end of a road they didn’t even know they were traveling down.  They get to the latter part of life and wonder what they did that got them there.  Most of them are broke, embarrassed, and depressed.

They didn’t plan for where they were going.  They just got on the ship of life and let it drift to its own destination without wondering if it was where they really wanted to go in the first place.

If we have no plan, then we do not get excited about life and where we are going.  We cannot possibly know if we are getting closer to our destination if we don’t know what our destination is.

Many of us fear the future.  We fear what may be coming because we are allowing others to plan our future for us.  We sometimes become so paralyzed with the fear that we will make the wrong decision, that we make no decision at all.  That is the greatest tragedy.  We must plan what we want our future to look like and then take massive action to make it happen.

Read Michael Masterson’s book, Ready Fire Aim.  He offers some great advice on how to overcome your fear of decision-making.  His philosophy will help you start planning to get what you want out of life and then take the steps to make it happen.  Don’t worry if you make a mistake or change your course.  You can correct as you go.

I have a personal rule to not worry about things I cannot control.  That means I stopped worrying about the economy or Wall Street.  I no longer concern myself with what the President is trying to get through Congress.  I don’t care what the weather will be like next week.  I don’t want to know if my negative brother-in-law is any more or less negative than last week.  You see, these are things over which I have no control.

Interestingly, most people spend a large amount of their time explaining, discussing, worrying about, or whining about things they have absolutely no control over.  There is probably a good reason for this.  It helps them avoid working on the one thing they can control — themselves!

When we spend less time worrying about the President’s economic stimulus package and spend that same time planning our own stimulus package, it is so much more productive.

Imagine spending your time creating your own dream life instead of watching reality TV shows.  Take just a fraction of the time you spend worrying about things you truly have no control over, and spend the time instead on something you  can control — your own life and future.

Here is a challenge for you.

Shut off the news for two weeks.  Don’t watch anything negative at all.  Even though you may think you have to keep up on depressing world events, just try it for two weeks and see if you really miss anything at all.  You may be surprised to learn that you don’t.

Spend that time instead reading a positive motivating book.  Challenge yourself to read ten pages a day of something that will help you live the life you want to live.  Ten pages doesn’t seem like much, but trust me, the new habit will change your life.  I can tell you that it’s worked for me in my life, and I know it will work for you.

You won’t end up retired, broke and depressed when you stop worrying about the things you can’t control and start taking control of your life and actions.  Just get busy.

[Ed. Note: Tim Reynolds, M.D., is a board-certified Emergency Medicine Physician.  He is a Managing Partner of Healthcare Express and the Chief Medical Officer of Urgent Care America.  Dr. Reynolds is also a health and lifestyle expert and sought-after speaker. For more information, click here.]

My next few articles will be dedicated to sharing the keys that will help you more easily make powerful and lasting changes in your life.

Today, I want to share with you the principle of APPROPRIATE GRADIENT. One way to think about gradient is as a challenge or “stretch.”  For example, if you already know how to add, learning how to subtract would be a logical next “stretch.”  We could say that learning subtraction would be on a workable gradient for a person who has learned how to add.

We build on the success of learning addition to move on to the next step of subtraction. By building on our momentum, success breeds success.  Why not put the power of momentum in your favor by generating a series of small successes at the beginning of any new cycle or project? Here are a few examples:

1. When you wake up in the morning, ask yourself this question five times before you get out of bed: “What is ONE THING I could feel grateful for today?” Just let yourself receive an answer. Breathe and feel the gratitude … and then repeat.
2. Ask yourself, “What is ONE change I could make in what I eat this week that might be more nurturing to my body?”
3. Pick ONE person you’ve lost contact with and would like to connect with again … and reach out today.
4. Select ONE quality (like humility or gratitude, or patience) that you would like to cultivate this week, and look for opportunities to practice.
5. Ask yourself, “If I were JUST FIVE PERCENT more wise, what might I begin to realize?

These are all powerful and practical examples of the use of taking a LITTLE STEP in a direction you would like to go. It is amazing how one step leads to another; very quickly you develop a POSITIVE MOMENTUM that is far greater than the sum of the little steps you have taken.

Then success begins to become a HABIT. Your subconscious mind begins to “get the idea” that success is normal and natural for you.

Make sure you allow yourself to ENJOY THE JOURNEY! That way, your subconscious mind will realize that you like how you feel as you proceed on your success journey —– and that is powerful reinforcement indeed.

Soon SUCCESS will become part of your self-concept, especially if you apply disciplines such as the five I listed above for at least 30 CONSECUTIVE DAYS.

May these ideas help you along your Path.

Blessings,

Dr. David Kamnitzer

[Ed Note:  David Kamnitzer, D.C. is an expert at helping people achieve high levels of health and well-being — far beyond what is available simply through drugs and surgery alone.  He combines his 20-year clinical experience and extensive knowledge in structural, nutritional, and energetic balancing to offer individuals cutting-edge approaches to healing.  To learn more, click here.]

I started my adult life jumping out of airplanes at age 17 as a member of the US Army Airborne and then went on to Special Forces Green Beret training. Talk about learning to live with passion. Everything we did, we did all out. This experience was where I learned the philosophy of work hard and play hard! It was also where I adopted the philosophy of “physical fitness: the difference between self confidence and self doubt,” which I still believe to this day.

I have maintained this philosophy through my adult life and it has served me well. I still love working hard and I still love playing hard.

Since becoming a physician, I have had the privilege to interact with many people and even impact their lives. I have noticed a huge difference between those who live with passion and those who simply live from day to day and how it affects their health. Those who face each day as an adventure and are excited about opportunities coming their way are definitely in better health. They miss fewer work days and are happier about what they do.

Here’s an example. In my clinic we handle many cases related to occupational medicine and workman’s compensation. It is interesting to watch someone with a workman’s comp injury and see how their philosophy of life affects their ability to get back to work. Those who live their lives with passion and are happy with their lives heal their injuries more quickly and get back to full duties in a much more judicious fashion.

On the other hand, those whose life’s philosophy is “what can others do for me?” or “how little work can I do and still get paid?” tend to milk the same injury for as long as possible. In fact, they will begin to become their disease or illness. As they try to get more time off and prove that they are in fact injured, they start to take on the characteristics of a person with that injury even if there is no physical evidence they actually have the injury.

What can we learn from this phenomenon? The mind is a powerful tool and we need to be careful of how we feed it and where we direct it.

Our lives and our health are a reflection of our thoughts. The way we choose to live begins with the things we choose to think about and the things we allow to enter our minds. If we continue to fill our minds with garbage from the media, magazines, and television, our lives have very little chance of taking on the excitement, adventures and opportunities we all hope for.

However, if we take that same time and fill our minds with the opportunity to learn by taking classes, reading good books and listening to positive educational/motivational material, our lives will take on a whole different meaning. It won’t happen right away. At first, you may not even notice a difference. But if you continue to listen to and read from good teachers, you will start to see your life change for the better.

Every day we are blessed with the opportunity to create the life of our dreams. We only get one opportunity to live on this earth (as far as we know), so why not make it everything it could be? Why not take this day to say we are tired of living the way we have in the past and then realize that the past does not equal the future?

Geese fly south in the winter because they are geese — they have no choice and it is what they are programmed to do. We are not geese; we are humans; and we can choose to do something else. We are the only species on earth that can make plans and set goals and realize the physical equivalent of our thoughts.

Health is a journey. It begins with the mind. Your particular philosophy on health and what makes for a healthy body will far outweigh anything you do at the gym. Living a life full of passion and joy and adventure will also lead to a life of health. So make a decision that this is the day you truly turn your life into one of adventure and romance and fun. Live every minute and live with passion.

[Ed. Note: Tim Reynolds, M.D., is a board-certified Emergency Medicine Physician. He is a Managing Partner of Healthcare Express and the Chief Medical Officer of Urgent Care America. Dr. Reynolds is also a health and lifestyle expert and sought-after speaker. For more information, click here.]

The last six months our country has been on an emotional roller coaster. There have been both highs and lows, but the collective national mood increasingly seems to be one of depression and worry.

Although there are real issues that need addressing, much of the current mood stems more from perception than reality.

For example, news reports focus on layoffs and the families they affect, putting the problem front and center in our attention. However, the unemployment rate is 7.6%, which means that over 92% of us still have jobs. But because of where our focus is, the mental and emotional depression affects everyone.

In a way, the financial crisis itself makes the case for the importance of perceptions. The economy is slow so people are afraid to spend and banks are afraid to lend, which makes the economy slow, which…

I’ll leave the economic jump-start to our new president. Here I want to give you a bit of advice about dealing with worry.

To begin, you may want to look at your assumptions about worry. Why are you doing it? Do you think it somehow serves you?

Some people think that worrying is a sign of maturity and being responsible, or that worrying is a way to figure out an answer to a problem.

None of that is true.

Excessive worry is more a sign of inability to gain a proper perspective. Rather than producing a solution, it keeps you stuck in the problem. This is a good place to apply the Pareto principle. Spend 20% of your time or less identifying the problem and 80% working on the solution.

Another reason some people worry is that they feel it somehow protects them from bad things happening.

That feeling borders on superstition. All worry does is keep you from enjoying the present moment because your mind is filled with thoughts of terrible things that may or may not happen in the future.

As you consider your beliefs about worry and why you may engage in it, you may find you want to stop worrying so much. Here are a couple of additional tips to help you accomplish that.

An important first step for many people is to develop a tolerance for uncertainty.

Many people who worry chronically do so because they have difficulty accepting uncertainty. But uncertainty is inescapable. Unfortunately for them, the old saying that nothing is certain except death and taxes carries more than a little true. Worrying does nothing to change life’s uncertainties.

One answer to this is to apply one of the principles of cognitive restructuring: questioning your thoughts.

Many people go through life never questioning the accuracy or usefulness of their beliefs or automatic thoughts. Often, just taking a step back and asking yourself about the accuracy of a given thought gives you a better perspective. Sometimes you’ll realize that a thought has little validity and you’ll be able to move beyond it.

Is it possible, or even desirable, to be certain about everything in life? Is it possible to accept the inevitable uncertainty and still enjoy life?

If something is uncertain, do you tend to envision a bad or a good outcome? As Mark Twain said, “I’ve experienced many terrible things in my life, most of which have fortunately never happened.”

For many people, worrying has become a way of life — worrisome thoughts intrude throughout the day, distracting them from their present moment (which usually isn’t too bad). This can be a difficult habit (and it is a habit) to change. But it is possible.

When most people question their assumptions and beliefs about worry as I describe above, they realize that it isn’t serving them, yet they still feel compelled to worry.

First, what generally doesn’t work is trying to stop “cold turkey”. Feeling stuck in worry and stopping just by telling yourself to do so isn’t likely to work. But here’s an approach that does work for most people.

The better strategy is to accept your tendency to worry, but agree with yourself to confine it to a set period of time once or twice a day. Set some time aside, say fifteen or twenty minutes, where you allow yourself to worry to your heart’s content.

Then when you catch yourself with worrisome thoughts at other times of day, remind yourself that you’re going to do your worrying later.

Most people find that this allows them stop worrying in the immediate moment because they know they can do it a little later. This frees mental and emotional energy to focus on what’s working and solutions for what isn’t.

The next step is to gradually reduce the daily time allotted to worrying.

Freeing yourself from worry spares you emotional turmoil and allows you to focus your energy in more productive ways. You might also want to use some of the time you free up to develop the knack of living in gratitude, but that’s a topic for another day.

[Ed. Note: Joseph F. McCaffrey, MD, FACS is a board-certified surgeon with extensive experience in alternative medicine, including certification as a HeartMath Trainer. His areas of expertise include mind-body interaction and cognitive restructuring. Dr. McCaffrey strives to help people attain their optimum level of vitality through attention to all aspects of wellness. For more information, click here.]

According to a fascinating experiment published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, “Just one act of self-control depletes your ability to have self-control in another unrelated area.”¹For example, when subjects were told not to eat chocolates sitting right in front of them, their persistence in puzzle solving deteriorated.

This is not just related to food, When subjects were told to suppress an emotional reaction to a movie, they had problems solving an easy anagram.  It turns out that you only have the conscious resources to exhibit willpower on one (or at the most two) fronts at one time.  The research is overwhelming in this area.

This is why it is SO HARD to stay disciplined with eating and exercise. This is true for any form of will power, which is why we often don’t do the things we tell ourselves we are going to do.

In short, any self-regulatory strategy has costs with respect to depleting a person’s general resources for self regulation.²

To make it worse, according to research on information processing, your conscious mind is only able to process approximately 50 bits of information per second, while your unconscious mind processes approximately 11 million bits per second.³ This means your unconscious mind processes information about 220 THOUSAND TIMES FASTER than your conscious mind.

Going back to the willpower research, it makes more sense now.  The part of your experience that you are aware of has very limited resources, while the part of you that you are NOT aware of, is extremely powerful.

Further evidence of this comes from the famous study done by Dr. George A. Miller of Princeton University. He proved that the conscious mind can only handle 7 (plus or minus 2) chunks of information at a time.⁴

So you can see what a drain it is trying to use willpower to follow a healthy diet, exercise regularly, etc. on a daily basis.  This is also why when people try to quit smoking AND lose weight at the same, they are bound to fail!

Now you understand that the trick is to somehow get the part of you that you are not aware of (the unconscious mind) to make the changes for you.

So how do you get your unconscious mind to naturally desire healthy green foods, water, healthy portions, exercise, etc. without having to think about it consciously?

The trick is a combination of positive association, priming and ritual.

With positive association, think Pavlov and the dog (you remember how Dr. Pavlov was able to get dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell).  You need to set up an environment where every time you take an action that leads to your goal, you will reward yourself.  Your brain will quickly learn to create this behavior without you having to think about it.

With priming, you need to put in place cues that lead to your desired behaviors.  The research is solid that environmental cues determine a great percentage of your behaviors.  Every time you see a fast food advertisement, you are receiving a prime (in this case for a behavior you don’t want)!

So level the playing field by putting pictures of healthy foods in your home and office.  Eat off of smaller plates so you are primed to eat smaller portions.  Remove “bad” snacks from your sight as they call for you to eat them!  The point is to set up your environment for success.

Finally, use the power of ritual.  It takes 21 days to change a habit.  Pick one ritual that you can easily do every day that will lead to your weight loss goals.  One powerful, easy thing you can do is to change your morning ritual.

Prepare a healthy meal every night before you go to bed, and pick any 20-minute form of exercise you can do in the mornings.  When you wake up, do 20 minutes of exercise (even if it is just walking), then eat your healthy meal.  This is easy to do and because it is the first thing you do every day, the stresses of the day will not prevent it.

References

1. Source: RE Baumeister et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 74, 1998.
2. Moraven, M., et al. (1998). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74. 774-789.
3. Zimmerman, M. (1989). In R. F. Schmidt & G. Thews (eds.), Human Physiology, pp. 166-173. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag.
4. Miller, G. A. (1956). Psychological Review, 63, 81-97.

[Ed. Note: Michael Lovitch, M.A., Founder of The Hypnosis Network, is a social science researcher and a connoisseur of effective psychologists.  His company publishes the best selling hypnosis program for weight loss available today, independently verified to help 92% of those who use it.  Find out how to put your weight loss on auto-pilot by clicking here.]

Truth: The media loves to describe the Holidays as full of fun, family, good food, and even love.  The fact is, however, for many people, the Holidays suck.

For far too many people, the Holidays are about the following:

1. Having to hang out for endless hours with dysfunctional family members while trying to contain your anger, hurt, disagreement, disappointment, and deep-seated urge to strangle or maim someone.
2. Spending money on gifts for people you hardly know, don’t love, and wish would disappear.
3. Eating fattening food until your body swells and hurts and then hating yourself for gaining 5 to 15 pounds of unwanted body fat.
4. Watching other people seem to enjoy being with their happy families while you feel short-changed and left out and somehow defective.
5. Attending uninspiring religious services with bad music and boring sermons.
6. Wondering if you are spiritually or psychologically broken because you don’t get into the “spirit”.
7. Getting depressed and feeling like you want to hide under the bed until said Holiday is in the distant past.

I could go on with my list but it is depressing me.  You get the point.

Question: Is there a way to get through all this insanity?  I have a few ideas that have worked for me.

Dr. A’s Guidelines for Surviving the Holidays

1. Spend as little time with family as you can.  They probably don’t like you anyway so staying away will not make it worse.
2. Make a date with friends to do something you all enjoy.  It does not have to be related to the Holiday at hand.  It could be beer and Monopoly.
3. Get real and expect to gain a few pounds.  Enjoy putting them on and commit to a weight loss program at the end of the Holidays.
4. Stop imagining that most families are full of love and fun during the Holidays.  Most of them are not.  They fake it.  In truth, Holidays are usually very stressful for most families.
5. If you are even a little spiritually inclined, then get creative and proactive about doing something spiritual during the Holidays.  Don’t be passive and wait to feel bad or left out.  Make a plan that will work for you.
6. Go out of your way to do something caring for someone during the Holidays.  I guarantee this will make you feel better.

Finally, hold your head up, look around, and pay attention.  Another politically incorrect person may be nearby and in need of a hug.  Go for it.

[Ed. note: Dr. Matthew Anderson is an author (The Prayer Diet), counselor and national columnist/expert on weight loss, motivation, self-management and relationships.To purchase his powerful and cutting edge 1 hour CD, The Worst Addiction Ever, click here.]

One Christmas morning I sat receiving hugs, kisses, and thanks from my two children as they unwrapped gifts “from Mom and Dad.” I was terribly unhappy.  Why?  I learned several years ago that the best place to look for that answer is within me.  It’s not always easy to pin down the cause of unhappiness, but I’m pretty sure blaming someone else is not helpful.

I had not participated in the shopping part.  My wife had purchased the things the kids were unwrapping.  Most of the gifts being unwrapped were clothes that would have had to be purchased anyway, so it wasn’t squandering money that was bothering me.

I ultimately came to the conclusion that I was unhappy because I had not given anything, really.  I had gotten a present for my wife but it was not memorable — something that I had just gone out and purchased without much forethought.

With my newfound insight, I confessed my unhappiness to my family and suggested that in the future we only give one present to each family member, and that the gift be something that required thought about the person. They thought that was a fine idea.  The next Christmas was the happiest of my life. My wife and my children, upon receiving my gift, each came to me with a very sincere and emotional hug, kiss, and thanks.

My gift for the people I love most cost only pennies in money. The cost was in time, thinking about each of them. I asked myself why I loved them.  What did I think was special about them?  What was special within the past year?  Much of that thinking time was done in the shower, while driving to and from work with the radio off, while shoveling snow, or any other activity that didn’t require thought.

I then put my thoughts into words on paper and wrote each of them a letter expressing my gratitude and love for the special place they had in my heart.  The letters didn’t contain any philosophy or advice… they were simply about my feelings for my loved ones.

Since that first special Christmas, we have made a letter exchange part of our family tradition.  You might think that its something reserved for writers, but it is not your way with words that is important.  It is the feeling that comes from truly thinking about the other person.  One trick I can pass on — when you have written the letter, set it aside for a little while and then go back and read it, pretending you are the person you wrote it for.  This is the final empathy test to make sure you are not letting any advice or judgment slip in.

This gift of love, of focusing on a person you love, and thinking about the nature of that love, helps to keep us from taking love for granted.  It seems to be a gift that keeps on giving.

The letters I receive make me pretty emotional too. Knowing that someone I love has taken the time to think about me gives me a very warm fuzzy feeling and gratitude for all I have.  And that’s the best Christmas present of all.

[Ed. Note: Mort Mather has been gardening organically for 35 years. He is the author of Gardening for Independence and has founded two non-profits -- one saved a farm on the Maine Coast and the other saved the historic Ogunquit Playhouse.  Mort is a certified organic farmer supplying vegetables for his family-run restaurant (www.joshuas.biz) in Wells, Maine.  To learn more, click here.]