It is a GREAT DAY! Great FEELING!

The "eating for what ails you" blog promised is in process. At this stage it is more like multiple chapters of a book, so give me a wee bit more editing time please.

Today, I just want to say is just an absolutely amazing day. No lie and I have more and more of these amazing days in my life since beginning on a Way to LIVEit path.

I've just finished making a miraculous smoothie with lots of yummy super foods in it and as a side dish had 1 slice organic whole wheat bread, 2 tbsp chunky, all natural, high in omega III's peanut butter and a tsp of fruit only jelly. This is living. Every taste bud is buzzing with delight and my body is bursting with energy and happy vibrations. I feel like I've taken good care of my self, so pats on the back all around and I feel like I've treated myself. Truth is I have done both and much more. This is what really makes this path work. It tastes good, FEELS good and is super great for your body, mind and spirit.

Never, ever, got this much pleasure out of a standing rib roast with all the trimmings dinner and I have gotten much pleasure out of such a dinner in the past and I absolutely will again BUT this is hear, now, every day, much less work and has much more long life value. I promise!

If you need any help identifying the foods that will make you feel like this please contact me. We will talk about your preferences and what ails you and I will come up with a grocery list of suggestions!! leave a comment with a return contact or contact me at trudonna@gmail.com

I wish you each and every one days like this!!!

What I'm Reading: Just When You Think You're Ready for Anything

What I'm Reading: Just When You Think You're Ready for Anything

Way to LIVEit's "Public" option

No matter what you believe on the political side or the public side of this debate, the absolute truth is WE, you and me, have complete control of our own outcomes.

The Way to LIVEit is totally about empowering ourselves to lead our healthiest lives - to be our healthiest and happiest NOW, today! - to lengthen our vital and "feel good" life expectancies - to cut our own individual and family health costs - the whole gamut!

Adopting your Way to LIVEit WILL, ABSOLUTELY make all the difference. By simply setting your eating priorities to a different drummer so to speak, you will shed pounds, you will smile more, you will FEEL like a new and revived person, NO matter what your age, how much you weigh, where you live, where you work...

I sound like a "traveling" salesman of old, with that miracle tonic or the zillion different on line mass marketing schemes to make you skinnier, to cure acne, to make you younger on and on.

I am not "for profit" selling you anything. I am doing my best to let the world in on their own and total ability to do all the above and much, much more without buying one tablet, one powder, one liquid - without holding your breath or depriving yourself for 1 hour. Bottom line the most self-control (in the old negative "will power" meaning) you need to adopt your Way to LIVEit is to eat no more often than every 3 hours BUT to EAT No Less than every 4 hours and to eat at least 4 times and even better 5 times a day.

For just one example but a tough one and definitely at the top of our cultures health outcomes that need improving list is that dreaded, despised, dastardly "obesity thing! When I put "thing" on the end of my sentences like that, which I love to do, I'd love it if you heard Sandra Bullock's voice in the Yah Yah Sisterhood, ring in your head. I do.

Obesity is NOT the problem, it is ONE of the symptoms. As long as we so self-abasingly insist on being "thin" at all costs we are ALL going to remain FAT! What you weigh, what dress or pants size you wear is NOT the end all be all of your health or happiness. Your HEALTH and HAPPINESS IS!

Get your priorities straight! Say NO to the Food Industry, the DIEit Industry, your friends and relatives, Dr. Phil, The Biggest Looser, the fitness Industry, the HEALTH Industry, Insurance Industry, even the Medical Industry and EAT yourself Healthy and Happy! (you can garnish some info from these "traveling salesmen" but take only what you need. DO NOT drink the Kool-Aid!

I'm getting off my soap box now. PLEASE read through the "facts" at the left of this blog and if you can take more time to read through past blogs and begin to understand the premise - to recognize how easy it is and what a difference there is available to you if you TAKE your power back!

CYA DISCLAIMER: Up front please know, I believe that the "public" option is the MINIMUM we have to do. If I had my way it would be "Medicare for ALL." I am actively engaged in pressuring congress to do the right thing NOW! I sincerely urge you to do the same!

The most important thing and the most vital to ourselves, our lives, our family and loved ones, our country is to get our priorities straight and take our power back to heal ourselves and be happy!!!

end note: this week on my Way to LIVEit went very well and I still have a hard time believing how much positive change I make and feel every minute of every day! Here is wishing you this marvelous state of being as you move down the road to your Way to LIVEit!

next blog: eat yourself well re: foods to eat for what ails you.

It is all in the way you look at it!

I want to talk to you today about the "mind body connection." It has everything to do with the Way to LIVEit!

#1. Live your fullest life NOW! Do not WAIT for some illusive # to do anything or to think you can do anything you want to do. You are a valuable life force just as you are and waiting to become an active participant in your life or ours is a true detriment to our universe!!! Be all you want to be NOW!

#2. Drop ALL Numeric body goals and make a list of ones that really count for you and that you can feel and that bring you positive feelings that resonate much larger in your life and much longer in trajectory than those #'s. i.e. be comfortable in my own skin, be able to throw on anything in my closet and feel good about how I look, be able to sit/fit comfortably in an airplane seat, be able to walk long, hard and even on hot days not get chaffed thighs because they no longer touch... The real benefit here is that these results are positives you can feel and far outweigh any sacrifices on a choice by choice basis you might make to achieve them.

Having your positive result be so much more valuable to you than that "instant gratification" is an absolute assurance of success.

#3. Love and accept yourself as you are now! You've heard this a lot but the how do I do that when "I'm so ____" has never been explained.

It is all about changing your perception. This is not an easy/snap thing to accomplish. It is a process but the most valuable one you will undertake.

For those of you who have read a lot of self-help books or have participated in much therapy, you know about "self talk." I'm not really sure why they term it that. It is your self doing the talking but is more accurately "self-bashing," and at its best "self-limiting." To make matters even more confusing, my mother's voice and old loves words, are all mixed in with my own. You add on top of that ALL the misinformation we've been fed for decades and this is a real challenge.

You must, You will, You can!

It is SOOOOOOO worth it! Becoming fully aware is the first step. Just spend a day, an hour, a weekend whatever being totally conscious of your thoughts and begin catching yourself at it. It only takes a little of this awareness to set you on the corrective path.

Once you begin to know and hear yourself do this to yourself then it is just a matter of consistently replacing those thoughts, that self - bashing with a positive self-talk. There are so many examples I wouldn't know where to begin. I'd be delighted if you would let me know what you find and how you replace them.

This last 8 days have gone well. My Way to LIVEit is on path and I am feeling well, happy, active and absolutely looking forward with wild anticipation and feeling as though all my dreams are coming true.

THE GOOD, THE BAD and THE UGLY!

I promised the "good, bad & ugly" and you are getting just that. This week had some of all of it!

Specifically the good:

• I was a way to live it pro/guru this week. I managed 5 meals a day - walked to and from work (6+ miles on work days) to and from pt appointments on the other days. I was really in the flow this week and it felt wonderful!!!!!!!!
• At one of several doctor's visits yesterday, since it was the 5th, exactly a month since I started bringing you along with me on the day in day out nitty gritty of way to live it - I weighed. Down from 220 - 215! yeah right?!

Specifically bad:

• I was taking a 5 day round of oral steroids. These absolutely could have been listed on the good side because ALL the pain went away and absolutely had something to do with the above mentioned "high." They also had me retain liquid and bulk up a bit and because 1) the effect is unlikely to last 2) I don't usually submit to any such medical advise, against my own best instincts. I also had a rough few days at work - not able to deal with the latest changes - lack of focus...

Specifically ugly:

• Upon arriving home yesterday, from weighing at the doctor's office, feeling great, feeling like I look great, waiting too long to eat meal 2 and going grocery shopping while hungry!!! Not to mention "HEAT!" I got into cool comfy clothes, closed the house up, turned the ac on (another thing I rarely do) and began to eat. I ate all day, late into the night. Very little that was actually bad for me touched my lips but the quantity and constant incoming of it was "ugly."

Today, I am up early, it is cool, rainy, cloudy and wonderful. The house is all open trying to catch/feel every moment of it and I have had my usual Kashi Autumn Wheat breakfast. The only "ugly" thing in my life is the mess I left the kitchen in after yesterdays episode.

Not even a hiccup! It is just another day in my way to live it.

I can surmise why yesterday occurred and philosophize about it, but I'm not! It happened! Today, this meal, this minute are new, fresh and everything is about NOW! No regrets! No punishments! No whining or dragging it out!

MUFA's

I have to admit, I am totally bored with the food I eat log. I keep thinking of a line in the movie, How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days! I will keep it up but as the additional info and try and make the meat of the blog more interesting and helpful.

I had a question/comment on my last blog that I am going to answer today. In the original posts for Way To LIVEit, I explained what MUFA's are and that you need one at every meal. MUFA stands for Monounsaturated fatty acid. In short, good fat!

We have been told "fat" is the devil, when indeed you need it for all your body processes to properly function. Too much of anything is "the devil" I guess but there are ESSENTIAL fats that you need to eat at every meal in small doses. They have wonderful, amazing side effects as well. They are foods most of us love and have been told we have to avoid even completely eradicate from our lives. When we add them to a meal, we feel Satisfied, almost like we are cheating. To add them regularly 4 - 5 times a day to your life means that you begin to enjoy every meal and never feel deprived.

The other absolutely unbelievable truth and effect about MUFA's is that in small doses at every meal they don't add to your body mass they actually eat away body fat. Your middle, your midriff, your thighs... Wherever fat cells have accumulated they will begin to melt away.

The KEY is small portions ( 1/4 cup, 2 tbsps, 1 tbsp...) 4-5 times a day with meals.

They are:

Oils- Safflower oil labeled "High-Oleic"contains the most beneficial MUFAS, followed by Olive Oil, and then Canola Oil. 1 tbsp drizzled on your salad or mixed with lemon juice, etc. as the dressing. 1 tbsp drizzled over hot pasta, 1 tbsp. to sautay your veggies with or "fry" up an egg... on and on.

Olives- black or green, salty, sweet, or spicy, as tapenade to spread on your "whole grain" cracker.

Nuts & Seeds- They have high levels of protein, fiber and antioxidants and they eat away your fat cells!!!! Sprinkle on yogurt, salads, cereal, just eat a palm full. The reason I say palm full instead of hand full is that we have become quite adept at getting way more than we need in our hands. In most cases you want to limit nuts to a 1/4 cup. If you choose to get your nut quotient at any meal as a spread, voila Peanut Butter becomes a staple of your diet. Now who among us couldn't eat healthy if it meant a PB&J every day. Peanut Butter for most of us is the ultimate "comfort food." You can even forgo the sandwich and eat 2 tbsps right from the jar. Who hasn't always thought that was "cheating."

Avocados- Okay for you non Californian's maybe this isn't a staple but for many of us it is and we have relished that taste and texture in salads forever. I love to just eat it plain with crackers and what is Mexican food unless topped with a little guacamole!!!! Portions for av0cado are 1/2 of small, 1/4 of large at a meal. I'll tell you a secret, that well they don't save well so I'll have to eat the whole thing is malarky. Cut an avocado into sections with the skin on and save in frig in plastic baggie with seed intact and just remove a section from the seed and put the rest back. Any area not touching the seed or covered by skin will get a teense scabby but just remove it and underneath is still absolutely wonderful.

Dark Chocolate- Are you swooning yet? Now I know for many of us it is "milk chocolate" that we crave. I promise you that is just a meager learning curve. Try it you will love it! Semisweet and other dark chocolates are low enough in sugar and high enough in MUFA's. The higher the Cacao content are darker, less sweet, especially when compared to milk chocolate. Go slowly, gradually your taste buds will crave the dark chocolate in exactly the same way it has the milk. I don't have to tell you how to incorporate chocolate into your daily food intake do I? Portion wise you are looking at 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, 1/3 of a bar or count it out by squares, 2 at a time.

7/26 - 7/31 - went pretty much as you have come to expect. I cooked this week and those recipes might be of interest. I made a luxurious favorite of mine. I usually only make it at Christmas time but I had crab that had to be used. I make a crab casserole. Cook whole wheat pasta and combine with good, lite mushroom soup and lots of natural, lower in fat cheese. I use cheddar and a little non- fat milk or soy unflavored, unsweetened to add moisture. You can top with some great whole grain topping or just more cheese. Serve hot with a fresh veggie and a bit of dark chocolate for desert!!!

It is too hot to walk to work these days, so I have been trying to walk in the early am and again at night when I get home. Now I live a block off main street in a small town and main street is long and well lit and well patrolled. If you don't have that kind of security, don't walk at night alone, not even with your dog.