Seasonal Food: Buy direct. Eat local.

Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can help you stay healthy. According to Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, eating fresh produce helps prevent cancer, heart disease and stroke. It can also lower high blood pressure, lower high cholesterol and keep your vision
strong.
It’s important to eat the freshest fruits and vegetables you can find. Organic farmer Henry Brockman said, “As soon as a vegetable is picked it begins losing nutritional value.” Green beans and leeks lose half of key nutrients just three days after being picked.
Next time you buy produce, check the sign to see where it was grown. Instead of buying fruits that were harvested elsewhere – before they were ripe – consider buying fruits that are in season, grown locally and picked at their peak. Not only will they taste better, but they’ll be better for you, too.

Adapted from Lappé, A. and Terry, B. (2006). Grub: Ideas for an urban organic kitchen. New York: Penguin Group.

Where to Find It
According to about.com, California grows 80% of the fruits and vegetables in the U.S., so there's plenty of fresh, local produce available. Besides frequenting local produce stands and Berkeley Bowl, check out one of the many Farmers' Markets near you. Here are some close to my neighborhood:

Alameda Farmers' Market
Haight Ave. & Webster Street, Alameda
Tuesdays, 9:00am to 1:00pm, year-round
Saturdays, 9:00am to 1:00pm, year-round

Jack London Square Farmers' Market
Webster & Embarcadero Street, Oakland
Sundays, 9:00am to 2:00pm, year-round

Kaiser Permanente Oakland Farmers' Market
Kaiser Medical Center, 3801 Howe Street, Oakland
Fridays, 10:00am to 2:00pm, year-round

Old Oakland Farmers' Market
Ninth Street (between Broadway and Clay), Oakland
Fridays, 8:00am to 2:00pm, year-round

More Reflections on the New Year

I caught a cold shortly after New Year's. Staying indoors, bundled up, I've had plenty of time to read and reflect. My New Year's resolutions boil down to this: "Be kinder to myself." One way I want to do this is to be more present.

By now you know that I'm a huge fan of Jon Kabat-Zinn's. I just finished reading his book, Coming to our senses: Healing ouselves and the world through mindfulness (2005). The book is about " ...the challenge of living [life] as if it really mattered" (p.2) -- because it does matter.

Kabat-Zinn believes that, in this age of information technology with its false sense of urgency and "connectivity," we've lost connection with ourselves. This "dis-connection" can lead to "dis-ease" (p. 120). Club Med used to advertise itself as The antidote for civilization. The antidote for information overload is mindfulness -- being present. The author asserted, "It is indeed a radical act of love just to sit down and be quiet for a time by yourself" (p. 86). We are talking about a daily practice of mindfulness-based meditation.

Why Meditate?
Different people meditate for different reasons. Some seek relief from their stress-filled lives. Others seek spiritual enlightenment and growth. The best approach is not to seek anything at all, just to be present with whatever comes up. Over time, wisdom and compassion -- for ourselves and for others -- will emerge.

Mindfulness
It sounds simple: "Make more of your ordinary moments notable and noteworthy by taking note of them" (p. 163). Simple, yes. Easy, no.
Kabat-Zinn described various mindfulness practices, including meditation and yoga, in this book and his earlier works. Many organizations offer instruction in meditation. Guided meditation may help reinforce daily practice, especially in the beginning. I just ordered a series of CDs to help get my New Year off to a good start.

Series of Mindfulness-based Meditation CDs are available from Jon Kabat-Zinn at http://www.mindfulnesscds.com


Reference
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2005). Coming to our senses: Healing ouselves and the world through mindfulness. New York, NY: Hyperion.

New Year's Resolutions: Discipline vs. Devotion

It's that time of year again. People everywhere are making New Year's Resolutions. I plan to take a different approach in 2010: devotion instead of discipline, as recommended by Bonnie Gintis, DO.

We're all familiar with the discipline approach. In my case, I have tried to regulate my behavior by setting arbitrary rules for myself. Again and again, I embarked on new exercise programs because I thought I should. When I didn’t stick with a new regimen or integrate classes into my routine, I felt guilty and beat myself up for my lack of willpower. As can be expected, behavior modification -- the "carrot and stick" approach -- did not work for me.

Now consider the alternative: devotion to caring for oneself. Gintis (2007) suggests choosing movement based on an “appreciation and desire for health and pleasure” – out of joy instead of out of punishment. Just reading her instruction “to be movement and not simply do exercise” makes me feel lighter and less burdened. This actually sounds fun. I am more likely to be active if it’s fun. Rewards and incentives are forms of external motivation. Real change comes from within. The challenge for me is to let go of arbitrary goals and agendas and to embrace movement experiences with “open-ended hope” (pp. 140-143).

So what will devotion look like for me? Here are some thoughts:
1. Begin each day with gratitude. Count my blessings.
2. Center myself each morning through meditation.
3. Connect with friends and loved ones.
4. Be present. Feel and express emotions.
5. Have fun every day.
6. Move more.
7. Get plenty of rest.

Happy New Year!

Reference
Gintis, B. (2007). Engaging the movement of life: exploring health and embodiment through osteopathy and continuum. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.

Yes, Virginia, there is a magical elixir... and it starts with "E"

One February, in honor of National Heart Month, I attended a lecture at our local hospital. The cardiologist asked the crowd of mostly seniors, "If I could prescribe one thing that would make you healthier, would you take it?" The crowded nodded excitedly and said, "Yes," without hesitation. Dr. R-- told us that the one thing is... exercise. The crowd was visibly disappointed. We expected to learn about a miracle cure -- the latest statin or some other drug. We wanted a pill. Dr. R-- recognized this and told us that if he could bottle exercise and get people to take it, they would see amazing results. The crowd wasn't buying it.

If you think of disease as a battle to be fought, then exercise is the silver bullet. If you see health as more of a journey, then exercise is one of your tools, like GPS or mapquest.com.

How much exercise do I need?
Many studies have been conducted on the benefits of exercise. Staying with the cardiovascular theme, let's look at the American Heart Association (2007) recommendations.

To promote and maintain health, all healthy adults aged 18 to 65 yr need moderate-intensity aerobic (endurance) physical activity for a minimum of 30 min[utes] on five days each week or vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity for a minimum of 20 min[utes] on three days each week. Combinations of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity can be performed to meet this recommendation. For example, a person can meet the recommendation by walking briskly for 30 min twice during the week and then jogging for 20 min on two other days.

Where do I start?
Even combining forms of exercise or breaking it up into increments of 10 minutes apiece can still sound daunting. How do we encourage others -- and ourselves -- to get the exercise that they (we) need? I'm not the first to suggest that exercise has to be FUN. If it's a chore or drudgery, we just won't do it.

What would be fun for you? Dancing, playing in the dirt (gardening), swinging on swings?
Here's an example of how one group encourages people to take the stairs -- by making it fun. As the organizers posted, "We believe that the easiest way to change people's behaviour for the better is by making it fun to do. We call it The fun theory. http://www.thefuntheory.com"
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

References:
Haskell, W.L. et al. Physical activity and public health: Updated recommendation for adults from the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2007;116;1081-1093. Originally published online Aug 1, 2007. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.185649. Retrieved from http://circ.ahajournals.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

Feeling SAD?

Lots of us get the holiday blues. For some, it's more than that. The shorter, darker days can bring on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a form of seasonal depression.

What should I do if I suspect SAD?
Get more light. Spend time outside when the sun is shining.This will help boost vitamin D levels, also. If it's gloomy outside, consider sitting in front of a full spectrum lamp -- the kind that mimics the sun's light. You can read, draw, knit or do any number of indoor activities while basking in the lamp's glow.
Do not -- I repeat, DO NOT -- use a tanning booth. I spent one winter in sun-deprived Seattle and started "tanning" to get what I thought would be a healthy glow. A few years later, I developed a melanoma. Fortunately, the dermatologist removed it before it could do any serious damage; but, I still have the scar to remind me. Yes, this is anecdotal (n =1); nonetheless, I strongly caution against tanning booths.

What else can I do?
Get some exercise. It is well documented that exercise is an effective treatment for depression and just about anything else you can think of. More about exercise tomorrow. For now, while the sun is shining in the East Bay, take a walk.

What does Healing mean?

What's the difference between curing and healing?

Two Bay Area holistic health experts have opinions.

Which one resonates with you?

Dance pioneer Anna Halprin (2002) made an important distinction between curing and healing:

To “cure” is to physically eliminate a disease… To “heal” is to operate on many dimensions simultaneously, by aiming at attaining a state of emotional, mental, spiritual and physical health. Healing also addresses the psychological dimension and works with belief systems,whether they are life-enhancing or destructive. It is possible, therefore, that a person with a terminal diagnosis may not be cured, but can be healed, and inversely, that someone can be cured, but not healed (p. 15).

Len Saputo, MD (2009) said: “Curing is focused on eliminating symptoms. Genuine healing moves us along toward peak health… of the body, mind, emotion and spirit” (p. 146).

To learn more about their work, check out their web sites.
- Anna Halprin and the Tamalpa Institute, http://www.tamalpa.org/
- Dr. Len Saputo and the Health Medicine Center, http://alternativehealth.com/hmc/

References
Halperin, A. (2002). Returning to health with dance, movement and imagery. Mendocino, CA: LifeRhythm.
Saputo, L. (2009). A return to healing: Radical health care reform and the future of medicine. San Rafael, CA: Origin Press.

Mindfulness-Based Meditation and Stress Management

Mark your calendars: PBS will be running a program on Mindfulness-Based Meditation in the new year. This Emotional Life with Dr. Michael Baime will air January 4-6, 2010.

Based on the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn (1994), “Mindfulness provides a simple but powerful route for getting ourselves unstuck, back into touch with our own wisdom and vitality” (p. 5). Sounds good, doesn't it?

In many ways, this work is responsible for my choosing a path in Holistic Health Education. In 2004 I attended a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction class in which we read Kabat-Zinn’s Full Catastrophe Living and learned the basics of meditation. The awareness that I developed has helped me resolve some issues and, ultimately, make a career change.

Mindful meditation can help with stress reduction and pain management, to name just two. The many benefits of this practice are too numerous to mention in a single blog entry. I have a feeling I will return to it again and again.

Is meditation right for you? Check it out and see for yourself. Here's a link to a segment from This Emotional Life:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdyQ9y5IUck


Reference
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). What is mindfulness? Wherever you go, there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life (pp. 3-7). New York, NY: Hyperion.