Change Toward Balance

Homeostasis; the tendency toward a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, esp. as maintained by physiological processes (good ol' Webster's Dictionary). Balance. An equal relationship between give and take, exercise and ease, joy and judgement, work and play, food and elimination. What goes in must come out! What goes up must come down! One hand washes the other!    So why does the word 'balance' stress us out?

The first response to change, or to the suggestion that balance is needed, is naturally defensive.  "My house is in order, I just had a stressful week!  Normally, everything is fine!"  Self reflection might reveal no time for breakfast, two bowel movements a week, poor sleep and a hectic work or education schedule leaving very little time for play, but if that is 'normal' then everything might very well be perceived as fine.  We all defend our existence, our choices, our position in the world we live within.  In fact, it would be abnormal if we didn't.  It is important, though, to identify what we are defending.

The second response to change is naturally resistance.  If the life lived now is normal, no matter how dissatisfying, changing it means unsteadying the ship.  There is comfort in expectation; knowing what will happen if you do what is expected, or knowing what will happen if you don't.  Sometimes resistance occurs simply because of fear of what is unknown, which is where the statement, "That is the way I've always done it!" comes from.  Change toward balance means learning a new behavior or recipe or routine which might make you nervous.  It might be important to evaluate why feeling nervous, nervous meaning a feeling of unease or apprehension, is equated with 'bad'.

The third response to a suggestion of change is feeling overwhelmed.  "If I change this, then I have to change that, which means others will be effected and I might face adversity, which will cause me stress and unease so I will just keep things they way they are no matter how dissatisfying they are to me."  Chances are, if your surroundings and routine are dissatisfying to you, they are likely dissatisfying to the others directly effected by the current state of 'normal'.  Let me assure you, dear reader, change toward balance is not as overwhelming and stressful as you imagine.   Change toward balance is actually stress relieving, time freeing and love making!  

Here is how to begin: Add something and discontinue believing that change means taking something away.  Change toward balance is not a graduation from a bottle to a cup, a pacifier to a blanket, a blanket to a big-kid-bed, a hall-light to a night-light.  Change toward balance is the antithesis to the child instilled meaning of change, or graduation from the known to the new unknown.  Change toward balance is the act of mindfully and intentionally adding what you intelligently identify as absent which in effect balances the boat.  While you digest the thought, eat real, naturally occurring foods, drink plenty of water, give your vitamins their vitamins and, as always, remember to wash your hands (that's a good balance).

Anna~

A Little Gardening~

Investigating health by the roots has pulled me into the soil where, as I've unearthed simplicity, I've become filthy with bits of information and contaminated by a need to fit it all together.  So, when I read a very simple quote this past Monday it was absorbed, and there it has grown into something I wish to share with you now.  Because I cannot find the quote now and at risk of plagiarizing another, what I have learned goes something like this:  This is not a short term fix, it is a lifelong change!

This.  What is 'This'?  Is 'This' a diet?  An exercise plan?  A career change?  A new habit to drink more water?  What is 'This'?  We all make New Year's Resolutions, pacts with our best friends, deals with the Devil and concessions for our loved ones, but most of those are temporary; we adopt extreme or uncomfortable behaviors for a short period of time until the commitment expires or until we decide the conditions are unrealistic, and we then revert to old habits.  'This' cannot be that.

What about diet then?  The West has a very cooperative relationship between diet and health; if you adopt one of countless restrictive diets (fat free, sugar free, high protein, low carb, etc.) you will be healthy, sort of like believing that if you have shoes and a tie on, you are dressed, even if the shirt, pants, undergarments and belt are absent.  Because health is mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and cellular, 'this' cannot be that, either.

So it is exercise?  I find that exercise is seasonal.  When it's warm I run, when it's cold I ski, when it's rainy I read, when it's hot I swim.  I also find seasons where I don't exercise at all!  And my career, too, alters and evolves with the ever changing tide in our home.  The Navy schedule, the children growing, the needs of my family balanced with the needs of my self.  I even find it ironic that I am jumping into pursuit of a career where I help others figure out what 'this' is when I am still milling over the definition of 'this' myself.  Because the definition of 'this' is ambiguous and cantankerous at once, I suggest we find the definition another way: Dear reader, you are not something that requires a short term fix!  You, dear reader, deserve a long, healthy life.  What can you change in order to make that happen!

I believe that health has a foundation; food.  Everything made within your body is made from the food you eat.  But health is not something that occurs by eating three bean salad and barley.  'Health' is 'This'. Health happens not with short term fixes but does happen when life long changes occur!  Dig in to a real, delicious meal, wash it in with water, and always give your vitamins their vitamins.  After some seed planting, cultivation and turning of the soil, remember to wash your hands.

Anna~

Hydration?

You know water keeps you hydrated, right?  Simple question, I am sure, but what does hydrated mean?    By definition hydrated means 'chemically combined with water.'  When you drink water not only are your sweat glands able to secrete, and your mouth able to salivate, but your cells are able to breath. Cell respiration is the basal function within the body that supports cellular health, cellular energy and, thus, homeostasis.  How did we get there from here?  Let's take a walk~

Back in the 6th grade we learned that cellular respiration is dependent on water.  Remember that word Osmosis?  Osmosis is the process by which water (or other liquids) can pass through the wall of a cell.  Each cell in the body has an optimal water content level necessary to ensure proper cell function. Osmosis allows water to pass through our cells and, as one cell takes what it needs, it passes the rest on so other cells, too, can remain hydrated.  This optimal hydration allows the cell to gain energy, produce energy and dispose of waste; cellular respiration.   This, of course is an overly simplified glimpse at cellular respiration, but it's extremely important to touch upon because the body is made of Cells!

Drink that in for a moment.  Each cell needs to be continually hydrated to be able to gain and produce energy, and to also secrete waste.  Each system in the body is made up of different types of cells making up different types of tissues which comprise different organs that perform different functions.  Some organs clean our blood, some move the blood.  Some tissues transfer information, some organs interpret information.  Some organs move food while other organs and tissues supply enzymes and acids necessary for the digestion of it.  Not one organ works on its own and not one organ is without cells.  If each cell in the tissues of each organ are hydrated and able to gain and produce energy and able to discard waste, each organ will be able to function in synergy with other organs.  Almost~

If water is provided, what else is needed?  Well, where do cells get energy?  Just as we get energy from the food we eat and the air we breath, cells trap energy from the molecules within the food we eat and the air we breath.  Amino acids.  Sugar.  Fatty acids.  Oxygen.  What the body can't make on its own we need to find in food.  Enjoying clean protein, natural, unrefined sugar, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and clean water enables your cells to breathe!  When you provide those delicious ingredients to your cells, homeostasis is not only achievable but likely.

Geez~  That sounds like a lot of work!  While you digest all of the boring science of cellular respiration, make a delicious meal with real, nutritious food.  Drink a glass of cool, crisp water.  Maybe grab some vitamin rich fruits to support the nutrients you make.  And, because germs love to attack our cells, the very ones we are trying to hydrate and support and protect, remember to wash your hands.  (Hydration and nutrition isn't all that hard after all~)

Anna~

Is Your Morning a Good Place to Start?

We all have a wake-up routine.  Some hit the alarm and optimistically hop in the shower.  Some take a few moments in bed, then move to the coffee machine for motivation.  Others move from the mattress to meditation or prayer to begin their day with enlightenment and joy.  There are also those that wake with yesterday's burdens and haul them around with sadness and disdain as they move from task to task.  Then, there are those that treat each morning anew with no rigid pattern or playbook, embracing whatever the day has to offer.  No matter your routine, let's all take a look to see what is working and what isn't~

Sleep.  The morning, whether we realize it or not, should begin with sleep.  Typical adults hit the sheets between 10 and 11 pm and wake between 5 and 6 am.  Sleep starts when you close your eyes and deepens over the hours of slumber.  Relaxation turns to light sleep, then deep sleep, then REM sleep with stages of transition between.  If sleep is interrupted (children, stress, sadness, aches, pains) or inhibited (alcohol or caffeine, light or noise) then deep sleep and REM cannot be reached leaving your body sleep deprived and tired.  If your alarm clock has to sound several times to kick you out of bed your 'sleep' may not be working. 

Water.  The average male should consume nearly 3 liters of water daily; women should exceed 2 liters.  Too little water causes a myriad of problems, and, most times, these problems aren't consciously associated with dehydration.  Obvious dehydration symptoms are headaches, dry, cracked lips, and limp skin.  Sleepiness, moodiness, and fogginess are also direct symptoms of dehydration.  More complex symptoms include thickened blood resulting in higher blood pressure, sluggish digestion (constipation, lack of hunger, cramps), muscle soreness and stress.  We treat symptoms individually with corresponding medications or applications when most can be remedied with water.  Instead of applying lotion to your skin, caffeine to your catatonic, and Motrin to your muscles, start your morning with water and continue the trend all day long.  Tomorrow you may notice your 'morning' working better.

Nutrition.  A doughnut, no matter how you slice it, is not nutritious.  So many breakfast foods are sugar slathered and seductive, but you, with brains in your head, know that though the body runs on 'sugar', it can not be nourished by it.  Bread, bagels, doughnuts, muffins, pastries, rolls, scones, potatoes, pancakes and waffles, syrup included, are all recognized by the body as sugar.  Refined, simple, straight to the bloodstream sugar.  What else is there?  Eggs.  Vegetables.  Fruit.  Whole grains.  Dairy.  That doesn't mean you should grab a V8 and a Danimals yogurt, for many 'healthy' concoctions are loaded with added sugar, added salt and added artificial ingredients.  It does mean vegetable juice and minimally processed dairy foods, whole fruits, grains, nuts, seeds, and protein are better choices than doughnuts.  Nourish your body with nutrition and it will work and sleep and think well!

Too many changes?  Can't give up the doughnut?  Don't have any more hours to dedicate to sleep?  Start with drinking water.  Pour a pitcher equalling a liter of water and leave it on your counter or desk.  Make sure your glass is always half full until it is gone!  (Then repeat!)  When hunger comes, choose real, delicious, whole foods.  Don't be afraid to give your vitamins their vitamins.  And, before you go to sleep, wash your hands of all the mistakes and regrets so that your morning is good place to start!

Anna~

Make a No-Work Weekend!

What do we do on weekends?  Even the best looking weekend can be overrun with errands and loose ends created by the work week.  Between a 'night out' on Friday and church Sunday morning, schedules commonly have housework, yard work, paperwork, homework and grocery shopping penciled in then crossed off to the tune of exhaustion.  What happened to the 'no-work' weekend?  Is there a way to take back your time?

It all begins with a plan.  Write out all of your daily chores and  divide them among the masses to get them done daily.  If you are the only body in the house you may want to simplify the things you need to get done by eliminating the obstacles in your life that make you  crazy.   This might include buying paper plates to  reduce dishes, finding a good laundry service or hiring a house keeper once a month for  bathrooms and dusting.  If you are a family of 4, divide the responsibilities as evenly as you feel fair.  Everyone wears clothes, uses dishes, and sits on the throne; those chores might be where to share. Just as we need to write down the foods we eat in order to fully understand what is going into our bodies, so do we need to write down our responsibilities to fully appreciate where we spend our time. 

Chores that need to be done less often might be better accomplished if they are penciled in.  Prioritize.  Categorize your 'to-do's' in piles of want, need, and must.  From there, make appointments to get'er done!  

What do we do with all of the free time?  Again, make a plan.  Look at a local area calendar to find concerts, events, wineries, runs, or fairs that you "wish you had time to attend!" You've made the time! You've gotten your house in order! Now go and enjoy all of those fantasies and festivals that you have been daydreaming about.  Time off should be time well spent! Give yourself some time free of work and spend it on you!

Before you go, fuel up with real, naturally occurring food, drink plenty of water, give your vitamins their vitamins and, as always, remember to wash your hands.  (Especially in the port-a-potty at that fair you'll soon be attending~ )  You deserve the nourishment!  Enjoy~

Anna~

Soaking up the Gratitude~

Again, I am soon to further my education of health and wellness.  I have an associates degree in healthcare administration; an area that I was warmly interested in for several years.  What interested me most about the potential of the career were the people.  After experiencing the world with grown-up eyes and tastebuds I have realized I am not so much interested in the institution of health as I am the embodiment of it.  So, because people are still what interest me most, I intend to become a fully certified, accredited and employable Health and Wellness Coach.

When we first married, my husband and I negotiated our relationship responsibilities and expectations of each other.  I was eager to be the home-maker, navy spouse and he was proud to be the provider.  Raising the children has been very rewarding for the past 13 years, but now, with our youngest reaching 3rd grade and a babysitter, ehr, I mean 12 year old in the house, my job is far less consuming than it used to be.  The chores are theirs, the responsibilities are divided, and a renegotiation of terms is taking place.  I am a mother.  I am a wife.  I lovingly and admirably enjoy my family and the life that surrounds my home.  But here, in these five paragraphs, I feel most passionate about my abilities and what I have to offer to the world.  I have found my purpose!

Looking at my history, my resume, I have always offered advice, care or guidance.  At one time I was a waitress, a job both of my daughters are eager to perform.  Soon after I hung up my apron I donned scrubs at a nursing home to either enhance activities of daily living or deliver seemingly necessary medication.  I have been a really good mother, I feel, nurturing strengths and recognizing weaknesses.  My responsibilities as a Navy spouse have been and continue to be accomplished with consideration and grace, if I do say so myself.  I have accepted my mistakes along the way and have learned from them (i.e, do not spank with wooden spoons, check the oven before turning it on every time, and make sure you know who is awake before embarking on an adult conversation).  It is in my nature to care for others, to offer help, to encourage, to assist, to solve the problems of the universe, to love.  I intend to utilize my past experience, my current abilities and my future education to help others claim their own health and be well~

Looking to my future, I feel I will be a more balanced portion of my focus, as I probably should have been all along.  To quote a metaphor from The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck, M.D., "If one wants to climb mountains one must have a good base camp, a place where there are shelters and provisions, where one may receive nurture and rest before one ventures fourth again to seek another summit."  I have spent much time tending to my base camp while others have departed for summits, conquered them and returned.  I need to trust that it is stocked, ready and stable once more, for it is now time for my own venture, my own mountain!

You, dear readers, have empowered me.  You have asked my advice and read my work with acceptance and with interest.  Thank you for trusting my education and suggestions and returning to devour more food for thought each and every time I offer it.  While you soak up my gratitude, find a real, delicious food, pair it with plenty of water, and, if need be, give your vitamins their vitamins.  But before you do, remember to wash your hands!  I will see you here Monday~

Anna~

In the words of Elizabeth Gilbert, "I am a better person when I have less on my plate."

We are now half way through September.  Pumpkins and apples are filling supermarket shelves, leaves are beginning to turn on us in the north, busses are clogging the streets and evenings are coming closer to the dawn of the day.  Sweater weather is just around the corner for fall is ten days away.

I don't know about you, but fall is my favorite season; not only because of warm socks, cool air and beautiful sunsets, but because of the food~  Apple pie, pumpkin bread, roast squash and sweet potatoes, onion soup, garlic and sausage pasta, corn chowder, lasagna, sage roast chicken, rosemary roast pork, beef wellington, baked fish over wild rice, turkey with all the fixin's... warm, aromatic, sweet and savory foods that nourish the body and the soul.  Can a food be better received by the body if we feel love for the food we eat?

Let's go back to stress for a minute.  Stress, as you recall, is a reaction that happens within the brain; a reaction do danger or threat; a total body response committed to 'fight or flight'.  The brain tells the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline which spikes heart rate, increases blood pressure, and spikes blood sugar.  The hypothalamus tells the pituitary gland to signal the adrenal cortex to produce the stress hormone cortisol which maintains high blood sugar and blood pressure until the brain signals the danger has past or the threat is no longer.   Anyone can become unknowingly addicted to stress because of the rush, the surge of blood sugar and the high from adrenaline.  Ultimately, after the blood sugar surge, blood sugar plummets signaling a ravenous craving for food.

What does that have to do with the nourishment of soul food?  Food that we feel nostalgic about offers the opposite of stress.  Within the pie is a memory of mom rolling out the dough or your younger self splashing sugar on the apples;  a fond connection to the food occurs which produces a plethora of happy hormones; serotonin, phenylethamine and ghrelin to mane a few.  Happy hormones signal hunger, slow the heart rate, reduce pain, clear the mind, and allow us to perceive our surroundings as safe.  The feelings 'safety' and 'content' cause the body to relax, requiring less energy, less fuel, less food.  The memory is nourishing.  Happiness is nourishing.  Safety is nourishing.  If we are nourished by our surroundings and our perception of the world and our connection to it, food becomes less the main course and more the condiment to the meal.  

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.” (Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast).  I am sure he remembered to wash his hands.

Anna~

Intent

September brings children back to school, color to the leaves, cool to the water, depth to the sunset and soup to the table.  It is a month covered in crafts because of an empty house.  A month captured in photographs of fresh starts and late evenings.  A month filled with ambition evident on every campus and courtyard and in every cafe and coffee shop.  September is the beginning of fall.  The end of summer.  A physical and transformative month of change.  Reader, let's follow September's example!


Recently I read a book full of suggestions on how to take responsibility for my own situation.  I was taken a back a bit by the notion that I was/am/will be to blame for my own circumstances (good or bad).  My problems are my problems.  I am responsible for where I am-   if I am unwilling to take responsibility than I am essentially giving away all of the power I would otherwise put toward finding a solution to my problems.  After all of this smoldered a bit, I started to hear all of the moments where I have given away my power:  "I'll wait until Monday."  "When I'm feeling stronger."  "After I know what 'they' think."  "It's my fault."  "I should have, would have, could have if..."  I realize, just as I find beauty in the changing season and welcome a different sense of surroundings, so can I find comfort in intentionally changing my own actions, moments of decision and efforts of consideration.  

A few weeks ago I lamented my thoughts on getting back into 'section x' of the closet.  In that post I stated, "The best way to define 'the thing' you would love to do is to sit down and think of a time in your past when you felt productive, happy, challenged, healthy, and empowered.  If you have already felt those feelings about an activity or lifestyle in the past, you can and are able to rediscover those same achievements in your future."  As we grow, we change and adapt to each situation that affects our own lives.  We adopt a new behavior here, shed a piece of ourselves there.  Waffle on a decision here, share a responsibility there.  We become a different version of the selves we know as our fundamental self.  I find in times of reflection and identification I am generally happy with the version of self that I have become.  At the same time I find I need to be more effective at owning my definition and identity with intention.  Doesn't that sound healthy?  Being intent? 

The seasons change not because of intention but because they are cyclical.  Automatic.  Expected.  Anticipated, even.  Enjoying the ever-changing yet steady world around us is comfortable, but living and loving in health should be intentional.  Purposeful.  A direct result of the decisions that we have made based on an education derived from past decisions whether they were successful or not.  Waiting for the same old decisions to feel different because of a seasonal or cyclical environmental change isn't intention, it's inaction.  Making a choice based on the fact that "I have always ......" is the exact opposite of making a decision.  Intention is defined as both 'a thing intended; an aim or a plan', and 'the healing process of a wound'.  Yes, that sounds healthy.  Intent.


Eat real food.  Drink plenty of water.  Give your vitamins their vitamins and remember to wash your hands.  And, for a change, be intent.  


Anna~