Reboot Yourself

Kris Carr

Kris Carr is a resource that just keeps on giving.

As an author and wellness coach, Carr has a sassy and down-to-earth style that speaks to me and I find she always helps me reboot my health and wellness priorities whenever I think I am not eating right, exercising enough or stressing my brains out.

As a cancer survivor, Carr draws from her personal experiences and she also draws from the advice of medical and health experts to provide helpful tips on self-care.  I just love her breezy way of explaining the evils of sugar, how to eat well on the run and how to work through those incredible cravings for stuff you know is unhealthy and just chock full of chemicals and fat but taste soooooo good.

In her latest newsletter, Carr takes on the idea of a personal tune-up.  What perfect timing!  I know I am always in need of one.  There is a lot going on in my personal life that others would prefer I not address in my blog and I respect that wish but it has meant that in the last couple of months there is little personal time left over.  I know I am not alone in feeling the crunch of personal and work responsibilities and I see you nodding in agreement. 

 "I don't know about you, but when I'm done with a major project I crave inner and outer tidy time," Carr writes.  "We all do our best when the pressure's on, but sadly self-care often gets the royal flush."  Carr's major project is her latest book, "Crazy Sexy Kitchen."  Here are Carr's fantastic tips:

Inner intentions:

1.  Mindful minutiae.  Rather than making a big production of my spiritual practice and stress management activities, find bite-size calm in the storm.

2. 10-minute workouts a few times per day are enough right now.

3.  Add pineapple to your green juice.  It's a total love-fest!

4.  Cranial sacral transforms my brain.  I've been getting lots of headaches lately and this amazing therapy soothes my noggin'.  It quite literally makes me purr like a cat.

5.  Shallow breathing depletes your health.  Notice your breath, your belly rising; make a conscious effort to take up more space as you (and I ) suck in life-giving, idea-nourishing; love-providing oxygen.

Outer intentions:

1. Clean your desk.  For the love of God, clean your desk.  (I'm speaking to myself...)

2.  Read the deliciously useless young adult book my girlfriend sent.  We share a love of the netherworld and all things supernatural.

3.  Cook (and eat) simply for a week.  Lots of juice, salad, steamed veggies, brown rice, soups, herbal tea, water, water, water.

4.  Spruce up the sheets and get a dark curtain for our bedroom.  We're still in the throws of our massive renovation, so hubby and I are basically sleeping in a tree fort (Not literally.  But let's just say I'm ready to bid farewell to the extremely steep ladder I climb to get to my bed.  And did I mention that our current bedroom is the perfect size if you're a hobbit?)

Nonetheless, sleep is essential.  Enter new organic sheets and total darkness.  When I don't get enough sleeop, my joy comes to a screeching halt.  P.S.  If you have trouble sleeping, magnesium really helps.

5.  And last but not least, I bought a really cool garden book to get a very tiny plot started.  Check it out: "The Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith.  This book is so thorough and totally perfect for a newbie like me.

The Wise Buddha

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship -- Buddha

Nourish Your Soul

The Summer 2011 issue of Flavor magazine features a cover story on Sam Kass, assistant chef at the White House.  The story, written by former New York Times and Washington Post staff reporter Marion Burros, discusses how Kass changed the way the Obama family eats.  By cooking wholesome local and seasonal foods for the Obama family during the presidential campaign and now in the White House kitchen, Kass  made it a priority to demonstrate the powerful connection between good food and healthy bodies.

Think of your body as the BANK OF YOU and fresh fruits and veggies as nutritional deposits towards your balance of continued good health.  Put simply, you really and truly are what you eat.

Just as cancer patients change their diets to build up their immune systems, people who are grieving need to be sensitive to eating regularly and eating well.  If your spouse, partner or child recently died, it's perfectly normal that cooking may be the last thing you want to do.  Cooking for one person poses different problems than cooking for a family.  Children have a tendency to continually tell you how hungry they are until you throw something together and put it on the table for them to eat.  But if you are by yourself and you're hungry, a box of Wheat Thins can be considered a meal.  Not the greatest thing but it's easy and no dishes are involved.  Eating alone can also be just one more thing to remind you of your loss.  A good friend of mine who lost her husband six years ago says the dinner hour is still the hardest time of the day for her.

Your appetite has changed during this sad time, so it's essential for you to take good care of yourself as you try to build back your strength.  Your emotions are all over the place and you need time to adjust.  Grieving is not a disease but it is stressful.  You have suddenly lost someone you care about very much and you're feeling vulnerable.  You have a lot of decisions to make and you're feeling the weight of all of it.

You may be tempted to turn to other substances for help but please don't look to pills or other drugs for relief.  This is definitely not the time to turn to alcohol, cigarettes or drugs to dull the effects of stress or pain.  Alcohol and drugs will temporarily numb you, but when their effects wear off you will have a much harder time working through your grief and then you may find yourself in a vicious cycle.  Alcohol, cigarettes and drugs take you backwards and downward and delay the time when you eventually will be forced to confront the pain of your loss.

You deserve better: foods full of nutrition, sleep and exercise.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, summertime favorites like watermelon, red grapes, raspberries and figs are packed with valuable nutrients that will help keep you youthful and energized.  No matter where you live in the United States, there's always something ripe to eat when the weather turns hot. 

A junk food binge is okay every now and then but watch out if junk or fast food is your regular diet.  My feeling is you have to indulge sometimes and eat something sugary or fatty as a treat to yourself.  But a regular diet of fast foods or frozen foods isn't going to give you the punch of nutrients you need now to rebuild your life.  Although I know some people who would argue that Stouffer's lasgna can give you courage as well as comfort.

Courtesy of Stouffer's

I totally sympathize with the convenience factor of food found in the frozen section of the grocery store.  It causes me to fall off the healthy food wagon a lot.  It's an ongoing battle.  I recently had a stressful day and found myself eating a half gallon of lemon sorbet.  Okay, I know it's piggy.  I didn't plan to eat the whole container of sorbet.   I would say somewhere around the halfway mark of the carton I knew I had reached the point of no return.  That little voice inside me said I should stop, yet I couldn't.  It was a really hot day and the sorbet was slushy and tart.  The next thing I knew my spoon hit the bottom of the carton.  No way!  How did that happen?

Since the bust of that bad food party, I will carry on as we all must:  Let's be kind to ourselves and start fresh from where we are right now and move forward.  Guilt about past junk or fast food deposits into the BANK OF YOU are not productive.  Think good, fresh food and healthy bodies.