Focus on Wellness

Ha - Surprise Week 8 Post

Christina Jones — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 16:28:32 +0000

We are still doing pretty well on keeping up with Dr. Weil’s suggestions from the prior weeks. Week 8 is really much of a recap of the previous weeks, encouraging us to keep up with the changes we have made from the weeks before. I intend on doing a fast of herbal tea, although I have not yet done one. Does anyone else do these? I would love to hear your reactions and results.

We have done very well in adding broccoli to our diet as well as the supplementation. And even the salmon. I found a great deal at my local grocery store, HEB, for wild salmon, frozen, for just over $3.00 a pound, so have stocked my freezer. I am amazed, but my kids just love it. I’m not sure if I wrote my recipe down ( think I probably did, but…), but I put this concoction on top of the salmon, and bake it for about 12 minutes, until done:

Coarsely ground almonds, honey (about a tablespoon), stone ground mustard, a dash of worchestershire. Yummy!

We are eating spinach regularly, and still hoping that will count as a green! Never again will I taste raw garlic by itself, but I really bump up my useage of it in foods, and am always using fresh now, when I use it - which is a lot.

The rest of the book has several stories from people who have followed Dr. Weils 8 weeks suggestions, and then it moves in to some extra information for different age groups, for men and women, for special needs people (pregnancy, overweight, heart risk, cancer risk). This has been a great book, and I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking for a good solid introduction into making some good lifestyle changes that will improve their immunity as well as their overall health!

Feeling Ignored?

Christina Jones — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 18:56:55 +0000

Yeah, I bet you are. I feel like I have been ignoring you too! I really do have lots more to say about Week 8, and I fully intend to do it before we move on. I also am going to take the site down for upgrades, so be expecting that within the next week. Any thoughts on our next book study? Here are the choices I have, feel free to add your preference, or another idea in the comments:

Dr. Weil’s Spontaneous Healing
UltraPrevention

Week 8 Overview

Christina Jones — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 16:19:58 +0000

Better a day late than a dollar short, right? This is our final week with 8 Weeks to Optimum Health. I will probably go on and talk about Week 9 and beyond a little bit next week as well, but we need to be thinking about the next book we are going to cover. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments, or email me at christina@mrsaresources.com. We will probably either do Ultra Prevention or possibly another Dr. Weil book, Spontaneous Healing. I would love your thoughts!

On to the Week 8 Overview:

Projects: Review the changes you have made over the last 2 months, and make a plan for the next two months and beyond.

Diet: Same as above, review and make a plan to stick to your changes for the next 2 months.

Supplements: Begin taking your tonic, commit to two months to see what it does for your body and the way that you feel overall.

Exercise: Reach your final goal of 45 minutes, 5 days a week.

Mental/Spiritual: Continue the breathing exercises that we have learned, use them at least twice a day and whenever you need to relax or are upset. Maintain a news fast for an entire week, then consider what news you want to let in to your life in the future. Try to forgive people that you have held on to a grudge against for whatever reason. Try to express that forgiveness to someone. Reward yourself on this final week with an extrordinary floral arrangement.

Optional: Try a one day water fast this week. Water and herbal tea with lemon only. Take Vitamin C, skip everything else.

Technorati Tags: Dr. Weil, 8 weeks, fasting, Vitamin C, Spontaneous Healing, news fast, exercise, breathing, diet

Service Projects for this week

Christina Jones — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 18:49:15 +0000

For me, I am going to focus extra hard on my work at MRSA Resources this week for my service projects. Since beginning my work at b5media, I have sort of let my MRSA work fall to the wayside a little bit, and I am pledging to get back to it in a bigger way this week, and have already begun doing so. I get letters nearly every day from people with MRSA, and I always try to get right back to them, but sometimes they don’t get the attention that they need because I am so busy with other things. I also have let fall by the wayside my daily search for people with MRSA that are looking for help and guidance. That is changing as well. If you want to try to help someone out here with MRSA, and you have had experience with it yourself (either as a patient or friend/family of a patient), please take a few minutes of your time and read the forum here at MRSA Resources, and the UK based MRSA Forum (the link goes to the US forum, it was just begun in the UK). There are a lot of people out there who are terrified and confused and aren’t getting the information they need.

Week Seven Overview

Christina Jones — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 20:31:21 +0000

Welcome to Week 7! Here is what we are talking about this week:

Projects: Do a few hours of service work for someone in need, or a charitable organization this week. Continue your steam bath/sauna.

Diet: Continue dietary changes from the prior weeks: at least 2 servings of fish and soy protein, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, ginger, garlic - and eat 2 servings of greens.

Exercise: Increase walk to 40 minutes, 5 days a week.

Mental/Spiritual: Try to connect with someone that you have lost touch with. Increase the Relaxing Breath to 8 cycles, twice a day. Continue to appreciate flowers, art and music.

Optional: Fruit juice fast - drink nothing but fruit juice, water and herbal tea. Take Vitamin C, but no other supplements. Do this one day this week.

I hope you had a great weekend!

Technorati Tags: service work, fish, soy, Relaxing Breath, Vitamin C

Visiting the Museum

Christina Jones — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 16:32:04 +0000

We are going in the morning to a train exhibit at the George Bush Presidential Library, which is here in town, on the Texas A&M campus. This is always a neat place to go–they are always having exhibitions, like the trains (which we are going to as part of a Cub Scouts project), but my favorite thing to look at in there are the display of gifts that Barbara Bush received while they were in office from foreign countries. I have seen them a dozen times, but stell they always fascinate me. So, this probably won’t count as viewing my favorite work of art (I would probably have to leave the country to do that), but there are a lot of beautiful things in the Bush Library, so I will drink them in with new appreciation this weekend.

I hope you have a great weekend too!

Technorati Tags: Presidential Library, Texas A&M, trains, Cub Scouts, Barbara Bush

Greens

Christina Jones — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 03:38:03 +0000

I am an odd bird (ha). My very favorite vegetable is spinach, but I hate “greens.” I know spinach has the properties of “greens” as described by Dr. Weil in Week 6, but not once is it included in the list of “greens.” So is it officially a “green??”

Said “greens” are high in iron, calcium and folic acid - I am pretty sure that spinach is as well. Dr. Weil refers to turnip greens, mustard greens, kale, chard and beets, and for me, I am going to include spinach in here until someone tells me I can’t. I do wish, that if you know the answer, that you would let me know!!

Technorati Tags: spinach, greens, kale, Dr.Weil

Tonics to Consider

Christina Jones — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 03:23:35 +0000

Besides Green Tea, Garlic and Ginger, which have already been covered here and by Dr. Weil in the past weeks, there are 8 other tonic herbs that he feels we should study up on and consider choosing 2 to add to our diet. He also says that if we will give them a fair shake (take them daily for 2 months) that we will likely see their effects, and if the effects aren’t to be seen that we will know that we are helping our bodies prevent specific diseases.

The 8 other tonic herbs are:

Ashwagandha (of the nightshade family) - restorer of male potency

Astragalus (of the pea family) - strengthen disease resistance and restore immune function in the immunosuppressed

Cordyceps (mushroom) - increase physical stamina, mental energy, sexual vigor and longevity, athletic performance.

Dong Quai (of the carrot family) - blood building and circulatory system stimulant. In women it balances hormones (good for menstruation problems), in men it helps build muscle and blood.

Ginseng - Look for gensenoside content on the label to be sure you are getting real ginseng. Watch for high blood pressure, and lower dose or switch to American ginseng. Good for people with low vitality or weakness due to chronic illness or old age.

Maitake (mushroom) - significant immune function benefits, anticancer, antiviral, reduces blood pressure and blood sugar.

Milk Thistle - liver protection, good for heavy alcohol drinkers and those of us that take many pharmaceutical drugs that are hard on the liver.

Reishi (mushroom) - improves immune function, inhibits growth of tumors, anti-inflammatory

Siberian Ginseng - known also as spiny or eleuthero ginseng, is a relative of true ginseng. Increases athletic performance and endurance, enhances immune function, general restorative for people lacking in energy.

Dr. Weil’s book has a section in the back where you can see the brands of tonics and supplements that he uses and recommends and where to purchase them. This tonic thing is a bit fascinating to me (I guess you may have noticed that..LOL). Let me know if you take a tonic (or two), I would love to hear about your experiences with it!

Technorati Tags: Ashwagandha, Astragalus, Cordyceps, DongQuai, Ginseng, Maitake, Milk+Thistle, Siberian+Ginseng, Dr.Weil, Tonics

Give away on MRSA Resources Blog

Christina Jones — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 04:18:19 +0000

We are giving away 3 companion books to the Discovery Channel’s National Body Challenge. See the information, and leave a comment to win the book at the MRSA Resources Blog!

Tonics

Christina Jones — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 17:11:57 +0000

I am trying to research tonics for those of you who are not following Dr. Weil’s book with us (and for those of you who are as new to this as I am), and this is what I have found:

From Dr. Weil: A Tonic Q & A

An online store with some good information: elixirtonics.com

Info on specific herbs and tonics: Holistic-online.com

Here is a book, from Amazon.com that might be interesting to you:

As I have mentioned before, I am using Dr. Weil’s Plantidote system from Origins as part of my skin care routine. I am pretty sure that the liquid supplements that are part of his program are considered to be tonics, and are mushroom based - and I can honestly say that I think they are doing some really good things for my skin. This system, along with a topical serum, includes two tonics, a daytime tonic and a nighttime tonic (that tastes reminiscent of Jägermeister, no wonder it is for nighttime!).

Technorati Tags: tonics, Dr. Weil, Plantidote