News
Happy Anniversary Self-Care, Well-Being & Beyond
Self-Care, Well-Being & Beyond was a health promotion magazine that was developed and published for the community. It ran for a year and ended ten years ago. When I reflect upon that experience, I realize the sense of connection and collaboration it gave me with the people in my community. I loved publishing that magazine not just for that reason, but for the many new experiences and opportunities it brought. I still miss publishing SWB. But I am grateful for the experience because it led me to write a book about connections titled CONNECT. Happy anniversary Self-Care, Well-Being & Beyond. You can read Self-Care, Well-Being & Beyond, free on my website at www.healthpromotionassociates.com, under the heading publications, No sign up is required.
Microgreens: The Nutritional Superheroes
The foundation of living food is the seed. Seeds are filled with vital energy, the very core of life. Each seed holds minerals, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates and fats-everything a plant needs and everything we need.Ann Wigmore They may be tiny, but microgreens are nutritional superheroes of the plant world when it comes to packing a nutrient dense punch. They are edible young vegetables, herbs and grains that grow in soil and harvested between 1-3 inches tall-somewhere between a sprout and a baby green. Microgreens are gaining a lot of attention these days, and for good reason. A study published in the August 2012 issue of the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry discovered that microgreens have considerably higher nutrient density than their adult counterpart. Let’s take a look at broccoli microgreens. This microgreen has been well-studied because it contains high levels of the cancer fighting compound sulforaphane. Broccoli microgreens contain 10 to 50 times the sulforaphane than mature broccoli and that amount may even go as high as 100 times. Microgreens in general contribute to an alkaline diet, contain fiber that carries waste and toxins out of the body and provide an array of vitamins and minerals in high [...]
What Are You Reading?
What are You Reading? “Books are uniquely suited to helping us change our relationship to the rhythms and habits of daily life in this world of connectivity”. During the time his mother was dying, Will Schwalbe read books with her. Each book they read together led into another book and then another and so on. These books guided their conversations, influencing him while learning life lessons from his mom before she died. From this experience, he wrote The End of Your Life Book Club. I never read The End of Your Life Book Club, but I did read his latest book, Books for Living. Right from the start, you can feel his love for books, but more importantly what they represent. Books provide us with a way to share, converse, learn, grow, and change. He encourages us to ask each other “What are you reading?” “When we ask each other ‘What are you reading?’ sometimes we discover things we never knew we shared: other times we open ourselves up to exploring new worlds and ideas. ‘What are you reading?’ isn’t a simple question when asked with genuine curiosity; it’s really a way of asking ‘Who are you now and who [...]
The “Bodymind” Connection
“In the end, I find I can’t separate brain from body. Consciousness isn’t just in the head. Nor is it a question of mind over body. If one takes into account the DNA directing the dance of the peptides, the body is the outward manifestation of the mind. The new science of psycho-neuro-immunology is redefining the connection between mind and body. We can no longer speak of body and mind as separate systems or entities. Bodymind – one word, no hyphen.” Candice Pert, author of “Molecules of Emotion” In recent years, there has been tremendous growth in the field of mind/body medicine. However the mind/body connection did not come into view until the 1800’s. Prior to that time, the mind and body were thought of as two separate parts. One pioneer in this field was Hans Selye, the father of stress research. In the twentieth century, he developed the concept of stress and the physiological response to stress by the body. He concluded that the body has the same response to many different types of stressors, and that stress can make you ill. Since Selye’s work, others have studied the impact of stress on the body such as George Solomon at [...]
Build the Foundation of Health with CONNECT
“Awareness is the ability to observe how you create something …as you do it… Seeing the consequences as they happen.” From the Book-The New Science of Super-Awareness by Bill Harris One of our biggest challenges today is maintaining healthy habits. Many of us know what we should be doing. But just knowing what we are doing and what we want to change is not enough. Developing strong health habits begins with awareness. Awareness is the foundation from which change happens. According to Bill Harris, “awareness creates choice.” With awareness, we see options we weren’t aware of because we understand the impulses or thoughts that generate certain behaviors. CONNECT™ is a holistic philosophy created to build a solid foundation of awareness. Many of the choices we make are made unconsciously. Our habits are on auto pilot. CONNECT™ bridges the gap between unconscious choices, to conscious choice. In the area of brain science, “awareness is created in the brain, in the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the seat of executive control or self-regulation, the part of the brain responsible for planning, self-control and will power, complex cognitive behaviors, decision making and social behavior.” (The New Science of Super Awareness by [...]
Book Review: Year Round Indoor Salad Gardening
My latest obsession is growing sprouts, shoots, and microgreens. I happened to be in the health food store one day and noticed a box of broccoli sprouts. They did not look like the same sprouts I was buying in the grocery store. These had a lot more little green leaves on top and tasted great. This caught my attention. So, after some research, I was compelled to buy Peter Burke’s book Year Round Indoor Salad Gardening, following his technique to the letter with great success. A whole new world opened up to me. I’ve learned about so many varieties of plants that can be grown into shoots and soil sprouted greens which have become my favorites. Right now I am growing buckwheat, arugula, and red Russian kale soil sprouts and broccoli sprouts which are a staple in my home due to their powerful health benefits. There is a lot of confusion about the terminology of different immature greens, which I’m still trying to wrap my head around. Soil-sprouts and microgreens, I am learning, are not the same thing and the author makes a distinction between all the greens. “Sprouts, bean sprouts, shoots, microgreens, baby greens, and soil sprouts are all [...]