2 Reasons Why "I Don't Know" Is Your Best Road to Health, Wealth & Peace of Mind

Can “I Don’t Know” Be Your Place of Peace?

I mention in a newsletter a free offer of an onsite consult and add “Please, God, not Medford.”   One of the readers is incensed enough at what she assumes is an arrogant, superior Ashland attitude to tell me so.  Real reason: I passionately loathe red-light ticket-cameras; evidence suggests that they are a revenue-generation scam, unrelated to road safety.  So I avoid Medford except for select shopping districts which I can get to without passing the revenue-scams.  She jumped to a completely erroneous conclusion, because she assumed that she knew.  She was absolutely certain, in a situation where she had NO actual information.  All she had was a trying-to-be-funny remark and an Ashland mailing address. 

Our brains are primed to do this by millions of years during which our ancestors were lunch to every passing carnivore.  The “assume it’s an enemy” neural pathways that run through memory and limbic system are the culprits in the “jumping to a conclusion” problem.  But being sure in a situation where certainty is not immediately warranted forms a major barrier in our road to inner peace.  Think I’m exaggerating?  OK.  Eliminate all national politics from the calculation and think about the last 5 times that you got yourself into a tizzy about something.  Ask yourself WHY you were so certain that you knew the other person’s motivation and ethics.  Do this on paper, not in your head.  So you have three columns:  What I Was Sure Of; WHY I Was 100% Sure; What I Discovered When I Asked or Researched.

For most of our tizzies, that last column is blank.  We never check our assumptions. 

Now, please hear me clearly: many times we are sure because our inner wisdom has perceived one of the English-language’s covert verbal attack patterns.  Even when we can’t verbalize how we know, we accurately know that the person is an Enemy.  But it’s not our inner wisdom in every single case.  Sometimes it is our brain taking a short-cut from input to conclusion, bypassing evidence completely.  In psychology, we call this Filling in the Gaps.  Our brains “save time” by filling in the information gaps in what we see, hear or read, by filling in the gaps with beliefs, prejudices and memories of people superficially similar to this person.  This allows us to feel (limbic system, remember?) that we have the preparation for an adequate conclusion. 

In the case I started with, all my client knew about me was that I teach great classes, I write books and I live in the Ashland zipcode.  What info does a person have in all that to come to conclusions about why I avoid Medford?

The major motivation for striving to limit the short-circuits to certainty is the damage that our anger causes in our relationships, with strangers as well as loved ones, and the legitimate shame that we feel when we discover the real reason behind people’s actions.  Naturally, the road to forgiveness, of ourselves as well as others, beckons, but how much better to never go down that road at all!

It IS possible to take control of this Filling in the Gaps.  Start with awareness of the problem.  Practice stopping in your mental tracks every time you feel a conclusion forming, about anything.  Ask yourself, “WHY am I certain?”  If you can interrupt one in a hundred of your leaps to conclusion, it is a start.  As you start this process, you will get to the point where less and less of your precious peace of mind is poisoned with conclusions that you were certain about – for which a better conclusion would have been “I don’t know.”  Not knowing is an amazing place of power.  Some Not Knowing isn’t worth more effort, like why the bank teller was short with you.  [Best bet: a personal problem.]  Say a prayer, send Reiki and move on. 

As Mark Twain reminds us, “It’s not the things you don’t know that will get you into trouble.  It’s the things you know for sure that just ain’t so.”  Amen.

Victoria Leo’s books are available wherever you buy books, including Journey Out of SAD: Beat the Winter Blues – 2^nd Edition, so relevant now, and her newest:  101 Healthy Meals in 5 Min or Less (2^nd Ed) and Red State, Blue Heart  Visit her at https://blastthruthosebarriers.thinkific.com/courses, www.soaringdragon.biz, www.youtube.com/user/humanbio4everyone/videos, https://www.facebook.com/Soaring-Dragon.  

3 Videos to de-stress a Busy Life (and more resources)

It's so busy-busy in December.  But you need to stop, do 5 Breaths and the rest of the 5 Tools in 5 Minutes to maintain good decisions, and to maintain joy.


https://youtu.be/0uBe29Cx7XQ

https://youtu.be/mOXKJxct_KY



Looking at the stark color differences the day after rain turns to snow.  The bright white against the deep green, you see the big outcomes from small changes in elevation.  And our "Small decisions" can have equally large impact in our lives. There are tides in the affairs of our lives that can lead on to victory... Be mindful of every breath you take, the decisions you choose, and do the 5 Tools every day.  The small investment of time yields a huge crop of  joy, clear decisions, health [the ultimate goal!] and even income.

https://youtu.be/pRmk0FS8Lb8

For more resources:

www.soaringdragon.biz

New books:

https://www.amazon.com/Red-State-Blue-Heart-Victoria/dp/1974032272/

Humor, inspiration, thought-provoking essays on how to make American culture healthy and kindly

https://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Meals-Minutes-Less-Transformation/dp/1979815445/
101 Healthy Meals in 5 Minutes or Less

https://www.amazon.com/Busters-Healthy-Longevity-Through-Barriers-ebook/dp/B01MZ4HNRZ

101 Stress Busters

Online classes

5 Tools in 5 Minutes/Day:  Strategic Self Care for Entrepreneurs & Other Busy People
https://blastthruthosebarriers.thinkific.com/courses/106742

Kick Dieting to the Curb
https://blastthruthosebarriers.thinkific.com/courses/76428

http://blastthruthosebarriers.thinkific.com/courses/pain-free-without-drugs

Do Insurance Companies have more impact on how long you live than the drug companies? Some new data to think about!

Publications aimed at doctors are where I get a lot of my health information. This article on the role of health insurance companies in not only the opioid epidemic, but the overall cost and effectiveness of medicine - and the reason why we as Americans DON'T live as long as Europeans, Canadians and others is chillingly logical.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/blogs/revolutionandrevelation/68935

5 Minutes to Better Sleep, Better Income, Clever Problem-Solving - and it's great fun, too!

The launch party for Red State, Blue Heart was a great success - lots of new and returned faces, big discounts and prizes. The book is still on sale at Bloomsbury Books, and of course Amazon and all the usual places.

Early reviewers were in stitches over the humor and the travelog aspects - 5 stars from everyone on that!

The calls to action are calls to think over the ideas. You don't have to agree with everything. All I ask - and with all the life in my soul - is that you really, really be open to hearing what is being said, and not shut down into ideology immediately.

I encourage everyone to write about their lives, and to do it constantly. Write out the funny things your dog or kid did, the goofy thing your husband said that made you laugh. When you re-read it 6 months or 6 years from now, you'll laugh again.

My newest book Red State, Blue Heart grew out of the stories i wrote down when I was living in the South - not intending or expecting to "make" anything of it.

In the same way, you need to create every day, not because it's part of a grand plan, but because it ISN'T part of a grand plan, other than the plan to have a graceful and powerful life. Reading the funny times allows you to see a life of joy. Seeing the anger, sadness, grief on pages allows you to be proud of all that you have accomplished. Yes, it was hard but you got through it, day by day, tear by tear.

You can be as Real as real gets in the privacy of a journal. There's no fool to call you weak because you cry or call you any other insult because you're angry. No one to mock you because you admit to some other "unacceptable" emotion, like the desire for revenge.

Your life matters. Your life deserves remembrance. And your mind and soul deserve to have the emotions of the day dumped. [This tool is Dump the Garbage, part of the 5 Tools in 5 Minutes/Day class and also explained in 101 Stress Busters for Energy, Joy & Healthy Longevity.]

When you write every day, pouring out the pratfalls and delights to be remembered, and the hurt and sadness to be purged from your body, mind and soul...... then you can start soaring with dragons!

Yours FREE:

https://blastthruthosebarriers.thinkific.com/courses/106742

Preventing Dementia and Cognitive Decline: Two Interesting Ideas: Part 2

The two ideas for preventing cognitive decline I will outline here involve a particular food, and a way of living.

The food is chocolate, specifically dark chocolate with at least 70% genuine cocoa.  Small amounts.  The flavonoids help break up brain plaques, according to an analysis of 14 small studies, reported in a reputable nutrition journal.  We all believe that one because it's what we want to be true!!  

The way of living that has also been shown to be a powerful preventer (unless, like my mother, grandmother and aunt, you have a strong genetic driver; thank god I'm adopted) is continuing to stress your brain by making it learn new things.  The reason I say stress is that stem cells in your hippocampus won't be stimulated to create new neurons if you give yourself challenges that are easily achieved.  So take classes at the local universities "senior college."  I teach at the OLLI associated with Southern Oregon University, and it's great fun to teach as well.  I take tough and complicated classes free online through Coursera.org, a consortium of major universities, including Princeton, Harvard, U of Copenhagen (origin of the universe and life, 12 weeks, incredible) and U Alberta (that amazing 3 course sequence on dinosaurs, OMG!), Caltech, MIT, Harvard - you get the picture.  Really fun.  Really mentally challenging, even more so than my OLLI, because I have tests during the video lessons and at the end of each week's work.  I don't HAVE to pass, that's why it's free, but I WANT to test myself.

Books clubs, if they are run by serious, challenging thinkers, can work the same way.  [Some are more opinions than "backing up conclusions with facts" types of groups, so they are social rather than brain-stimulating.  Both types have their value!]

Reading non-fiction is something that you can do on your own.  Do comprehensive, clearly-articulated "book reports" on your blog or Facebook page.  Hell of a lot more interesting for your readers than what you had for lunch or how bummed out and bored you are because it's raining, right?  If you don't have friends who appreciate that kind of post, Friend me, because *I* do!

Learning a language is a perennial good idea.  It might take you longer to get fluent than it would have when you were younger, but that's not a reason to never start, right?  If you travel, set yourself a goal of knowing 10 key phrases and have a vocabulary of at least 50 additional words before you leave.  I have found that basic conversation, even if you are stammering and mis-pronouncing, signals to others that you are making an effort to meet them on THEIR ground, and generates reciprocal kindness.  Which you need when you are traveling, amen.

Just being able to read signs is a confidence booster.  I remember being in Moscow when my host stopped to gas up the car and I tried reading the signs.  One interesting one was "motor masla."  Motor was a car but masla was butter.  Butter in your car?  Then my brain crunched on butter, kinda-like oil, and the answer was clear.  Or when driving in rural Quebec and saw signs for "Maiz" (or was it maz?).  God bless my large English vocabulary.  Maize is another name for corn.  Yeah!  I can read French!


Explore more ideas at www.soaringdragon.biz.  Check out my newest book (Oct 2017):

https://www.amazon.com/Red-State-Blue-Heart-Victoria/dp/1974032272/   

Being in Pain = Shorter Life! And it's not for the reason you think.....

A comprehensive medical study in the UK says that we can say that being in chronic pain by itself is enough to boost your chances of dying in the next year by a statistically-significant amount.

"Just" pain, say people who don't know what they're talking about. But, as I explain in my new class

http://blastthruthosebarriers.thinkific.com/courses/pain-free-without-drugs

I DO know, as a health coach and transformational healer, and as a former sufferer.

Why the higher % of death? The side effects of constant pain: lack of exercise; going for comfort food rather than veggies and nutrition, sedentary life; stress, worry, anxiety.

So my mini-course becomes even more relevant. If you're in pain, you need to get it to stop, using non-drug methods that work. And you have to be aware of the gentle exercise [see my min-course] and the easy healthy eating [101 Healhy Meals in 5 Minutes or Less http://www.amazon.com/101-Healthy-Meals-Minutes-Less/dp/] and you need to find ways to distract yourself from the worry-thoughts [101 Stress Busters https://www.amazon.com/Busters-Healthy-Longevity-Through-Barriers-ebook/dp/B01MZ4HNRZ].

Key Components of HR Wellness and Motivation Programs: It's Not What You Think!

I was talking to a health and benefits manager about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. She is reading articles that tell her that only intrinsic motivations matter. But I know so much research that validates my instant-salivation when someone says $100 Amazon Gift-Card. So here's my take, in written form:

Extrinsic motivation is motivation that is focused outward, to the environment that the person is in. For example, you give people a $100 gift card or a reduction in their health insurance premiums if they get screened by their doctor and then talk with a health coach at least once a month, to focus on reducing weight, blood pressure or emotional stress in their lives - all factors that are known to lead to expensive illnesses. The person is taking action because you are dangling money (an external factor) or you are threatening them with a negative outcome (higher premiums).

Intrinsic motivation is motivation (desire) that stems from inside the person. The group increases the customer satisfaction by decreasing the fail rate of a product, and they do that because they are given more autonomy in their work and they are on fire to do a good job, because a good job reflects on their vision of themselves. They want to see themselves as Quality Performers, so they are internally-powered to think of new ideas and put them into practice. They take ownership of the result because they truly, deeply care (are motivated).

However, human beings are complex, and simple definitions don't model human beings very well. Most people take action or stop taking action, or shift their internal beliefs, because of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The most successful Human Resources changes include both intrinsic and extrinsic components. In the intrinsic example above, the professionals started to take more ownership of the final result (shifted to more intrinsic motivation) when they were given more power and autonomy to make changes; if the company just talks, or brings in a "motivational speaker," the results will not last, because deep desire isn't engaged by just talk.

One interesting result is that positive external incentives work more effectively than negative incentives. From a psychology perspective, consider that if you want people to change deeply ingrained habits, are they more likely to do so if they are cheerfully walking toward a reward, or are angry and resentful (you are increasing their premiums unless they comply)?

In the example of improving health outcomes, the best results seem to include both extrinsic factors (the positive financial incentives) and the addition of intrinsic motivation. The health coaches provide encouragement and inspiration, and the best coaches will stress the outcome of the changes: that the employee will be more likely to stay healthy for their children if they maintain a healthy weight and blood pressure. A strong desire to do the best for one's children is a common intrinsic motivation to get healthier.

Understanding that people are complex, that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations work best when both are active, and that carrots (positives) work better than sticks (negatives) can help guide a company to their true end goal - greater profits through more educated and trained, happier and more engaged workers.

Harness the Energy of Nature for Your Own Transformation!

The sun is just starting to climb over the horizon.  Dawn is here.  In the same way, Spring is the season for beginnings.  As the Light begins to return, more and more each day, our human bodies get more serotonin, and more dopamine.  We have a surge of energy.  We are throwing off the lethargy of winter.  Harness this natural biological surge and move forward.  Do the 5 Breaths meditation listed earlier, or another free guided journey from my website www.soaringdragon.biz/classes, and when you are deeply relaxed, softly and gently ask your deep unconscious what it really wants.  This is the part of you that always knows what you really want the meaning of your life to be.

Pick one small change - perhaps in your health or how you spend your life - and make a commitment to yourself.  Start walking every day for 20 minutes.  Check out my recipes and ideas for healthier eating.  Read my blog for steps to take for more self-love and self-respect.  Start Dumping the Garbage every night (see 101 Stress Busters).  Just one small thing, not a major make-over, because that can scare your unhealed inner child so much she starts sabotaging - and it scares other people into sabotage as well.  Just one small thing.  Commit to it utterly.

Set up rewards for yourself (not food-related, please; meditate until you know what you really want and aren't giving yourself permission to have), when you do your one small thing every day for a week.  And keep your word to yourself. You're a person of integrity.  You deserve to be able to rely on your word.  Give yourself that reward - perhaps time to yourself.  I have a client who went to her sister's house for 90 minutes every Saturday, just for Me Time, because she could not trust her family to respect her boundaries.  Eventually, she was able to have Me Time at home, and also Creative Time when the whole family did various art projects together - bliss!  Whatever your rewards are, know that you CAN brainstorm the rewards that are small in cost but huge in meaning and personal value.

Everywhere, plant life is coming into exuberant form, pushing up through the earth, bursting into colorful bloom or lush foliage.  You are part of this ageless rhythm as well.  Let the energy of spring flow through your veins and answer the call with a clear and exultant YES!  The journey of a lifetime is accomplished step by step.  Take a step and commit to another one every day....

Have you Heard?? Moderately Overweight Is Healthier Than Being Slim!

Except that it's not true.....

There was a big flurry of reporting about a meta-study that seemed to indicate that being a bit chub was better than being slim. A bunch of doctors thought that there was an unseen factor at work: many illnesses cause loss of weight. Were some of those slim people really ill with things that only showed up later ?

New study says yes: if you eliminate the people who recently lost weight due to illness, and just look at longer-term trends, then the "advantage" of moderate chub disappears and you are left with the same message that we've been hating.....

Overweight kills. It takes years off your healthy potential lifespan, either by making you ill & miserable or by killing you outright.

We're not talking about 10 pounds for a woman of average height. If you are over 60, 10 pounds has a very small impact on mortality or morbidity (getting sick with a serious disease), and even at a younger age, it's not worth heroic measures to get that gone. But DON'T LET IT GET OVER 10 POUNDS.

I know that many of my clients and friends are sick of the weight/fat issue. Fair enough. But I have to keep banging on about it, because my work is about facts and truth. I have to tell you what is true, not what you want to hear, as a matter of ethics.

And the more fun you're having, the easier everything else is, including eating kale and working out every single day, if you choose the path of health and longevity. I put together a whole lotta fun in 101 Stress Busters (Amazon or your local bookseller) and I have some very relaxing journeys (FREE) on the Classes tab of soaringdragon.biz.

Make your life joyous, whatever life path you choose!

FREE Resource: Meditation Videos

Are you feeling tired, stressed, frustrated?  Of course ypu are, from time to time or most of the time, depending on your circumstances.  If you're thinking I'm going to ask you to sit quietly and "think about nothing" as one of my clients put it - nah.  [My new book 101 Stress Busters has lots of walking meditation and active visualizing meditation, along with 86 really fun and very powerful creative arts that will induce relaxation among other important medical changes.]  

Slowing the adrenal cascade improves your blood pressure which protects your sexual health, as well as protecting you from deadly strokes and kidney failure.  It also protects your brain from loss of memory and general dopiness - powerful medicine for everyone from full-time parents to small business owners and entrepreneurs.  

If you're an entrepreneur, it WILL boost your income - giving you great new marketing ideas, boosting your energy to work, and wiping out the worries that sap your productivity. 

How about taking 45 seconds to a minute and a half to contemplate a really beautiful natural scene while you take 5 slow, deep breaths?  Here are some examples:

https://youtu.be/aGuUCEoSfD8

https://youtu.be/teQds4mz_C8

https://youtu.be/Bdz_UmDXFvs     for entrepreneurs

https://youtu.be/wYAmJyOfsMw

https://youtu.be/T7KSbv8cXag     end of day, gratitude

https://youtu.be/hLbwlDiYduY     walk in the woods

Join my mailing list for inspiration, to get first crack at free beta test enrollment of my new online classes, and special offers just for subscribers.  email victoria@soaringdragon.biz

www.soaringdragon.biz

2 key concerns and 4 big solutions for perimenopause and menopause

When you are 40-50 years old and female, you are in perimenopause, the time when major changes are happening all over your body, on the road to the major landmark of menopause. Women have to accomplish in approximately 18 months what a man gets to spread out over a decade. [The male version is andropause, when a man's internal biochemistry shifts from reproduction to conservation of resources for aging.]

Problem #1:  Failing Thyroid

One of the most common problems is a failing thyroid. While many changes of perimenopause and menopause are normal parts of life, including hot flashes, a failing thyroid needs intervention,

What does thyroid hormone do?

Thyroid hormone must be absorbed by every cell in your body. It is the metabolism hormone. Without it, you will experience more and more lethargy, you will constantly feel cold, you will gain more and more weight and (if the thyroid levels fall low enough), you will die. The ONLY way to deal with a thyroid that is failing to produce enough T4 (which is converted to the active hormone T3) is to supplement with genuine T4 or T3. Syntheroid doesn't work well for a lot of people but it's cheap so you'll probably start with that one. Armour is "natural" in that it is taken from the bodies of pigs who were killed for meat, and that natural moniker appeals to some of us. The doses aren't going to be precisely equal because every pig is different, which is why your doc may not love it; it's harder to feel good if you're not getting the same dose every day, so if your ideology pushes you to Armour (which I love, by the way), you understand that her concern is your health, not anything sinister, please. You can also take T3 directly, whose brand name is Cytomel.

Your body needs you to take T4 or T3 every day, so your cells can have the chemical it needs to run your metabolism. There are NO herbs, and iodine supplements are included here, that can substitute for thyroid hormone. If you genuinely need it, do please take it. An iodine supplement can only help if you are not producing hormone due to an actual iodine deficiency and if you are eating a healthy diet, you don't have one. You can harm yourself very severely if you overdose on iodine, so don't muck around with this. Do what your body needs.

Another cure: get serious about exercise.  Do it; stop making excuses.  I KNOW that when you aren't sleeping enough, etc. you get frantic about What Isn't Getting Done.  This increases your stress.  There is a solution, it is actually the ONLY solution, and it will work.

Here's the solution: cut your to-do list in half.  I. AM. SERIOUS.  For the first two years that perimenopause starts and the 18 months of actual menopause you need to cut back your responsibilities sharply.  You have to.  You are the exquisite ancestral result of 10,000 generations of people who dealt with reality, not with what they wished was reality; those folks ended up dead and left the gene pool.  You have to have less worries and responsibilities.  Get a good night's sleep and hire a life coach like me and make it happen.  

This is a major biological transition and moderate exercise (energetic walking, treadmilling and spinning, yoga, weights work, classes, etc.) every single day will improve your hormonal balance every single day.  I know you hate this truth, but it is a truth, supported by reams of clinical evidence.  Moving enough to get a mild sweat going shifts your bouncing hormone levels onto a more even keel.  They need to trend downward slowly; you can deal with that.  It's when they are all over the place that your poor brain gets crazy and has you drenching sweat one minute and freezing the next and sleeping deeply and healthfully never  If you want the torment to stop, lace up your shoes and re-read/view/listen to the Moving Domain. 

Taking hormone supplements (even the natural, bioidentical, blah-blah stuff) ups your chances of breast cancer.  Think breast cancer will be less hassle than exercising every day?  By the time we hit 45, we're past the fantasy that devastating problems and illnesses only happen to other people.  Whatever it takes, make exercise and healthy eating your priority.

Eat more soy.  Soy metabolizes as a molecule that looks enough like estradiol (estrogen) that it connects to hormone receptors on cells and makes your body think it has more hormone than it really does.  So your peri- and menopause symptoms are less intense.  Japanese women have lower levels of reproductive cancers and easier menopause and a lot of the reason is soy in the diet.  Soy milk.  Edamame.  Tempeh.  Tofu that's flavored.  If all you've ever eaten is the boring while stuff, that's only for the hard-core.  Ordinary folks like me get the flavored stuff, yum.  Non-meat sausage, bacon and you-name-it can be made from tapioca and other healthy substances, but a lot of it is soy.  Enjoy!

Problem #2: Catastrophically dropping calorie requirements

This cause of slow and steady weight gain during the perimenopause and menopause years is a sharp drop in your metabolic rate.  You burn less calories just running basic processes.  You will have to cut 100-300 calories per day out of what you input by changing what you eat or eating less overall food per day.  You’ll be mildly hungry a lot of the time, because of the crazy hormones, and if you respond with eating, you will compound the problem. 

Good news: exercise dulls your appetite as well as revving up your metabolism for several hours.  The amount you burn working out is trivial compared to the benefit of boosting your metabolism.  Adding muscle – not bulk, remember; breathe! – adds to your metabolic rate because muscles burn up calories getting ready to leap into action, whereas fat just sits there.

The good news about this 2^nd issue is that you don’t need a manufactured hormone to save you.  You can be the heroine of this story all on your own. 

Check out  101 Stress Busters for Energy, Joy & Healthy Longevity for great ideas!!  Only $1.99 on Kindle; $9.99 in paper.  

www.soaringdragon.biz
victoria@soaringdragon.biz

How I Made Brussels Sprouts Lovable...

How I Made Brussels Sprouts Lovable
                                       – Without Requiring a Vulcan Mind-Meld

Copyright 2017, Victoria C. Leo

             

              Yeah. Brussels sprouts.  I wanted to pick the most difficult palatability challenge just like I chose the toughest demographic when I began working on weight loss challenges in my business nineteen years ago [women 35+ with full-time careers or businesses, kids, cats, parents, poodles, a 21^st century household with 12 different kinds of insurance to fill out forms for, and cars, appliances and electronics that break, need cleaning or explode at the least opportune moments; you know, people like YOU!]. 

I’m going to prove you to you that it’s just as easy to turn this tough tiger into a sweet pussy-cat as it is to – well, pet a pussy-cat.  All the vegetables that you “can’t stand”?  Bring ‘em on!!

What’s the matter with…

1)   Brussels sprouts

2)   Green beans

3)   Peas

4)   Spinach

5)   Kale

6)   Swiss and red chard

7)   Collards

The problems, if you think about it, fall into one of two categories: either the greens are bitter, have an “aftertaste,” are tough to chew, etc.  or they are just boring.  Beans, peas and spinach fall into this latter category.

How to Make the Boring Exciting

One of the best things to do with peas (and everything else on the list) is to toss frozen peas into soup or stew.  101 Healthy Meals in 5 Minutes or Less has a whole section on soup and stew.  Start with a low-sodium soup and hype it with more fresh or frozen veg, or start with vegetable or seafood stock and do the same.

But here’s what so many people forget: you can radically change the Yum rating of food by adding spices.  That’s why Europeans and Middle Easterners wanted so desperately to find new, faster, cheaper routes to Indonesia, aka The Spice Islands, and India.  And if you’ve ever eaten traditional English cooking, you’ll wish they’d tried harder, sigh.  In 101 Healthy Meals, I explain the sweet prices and sharp spices in more detail.  The short version is: pepper, garlic and stuff like that all taste good together; all the sweet spices taste great together.  Don’t fuss over exactly which one to use.  Just throw a moderate (sharp spices) or generous (sweet spices) amount in the soup/stew.  Set the burner to medium, set a timer to 15 minutes and go back to writing your memoirs or paying the bills.  Come back and stir it at intervals until you taste it and it tastes good.   It will!

Peas, spinach, that boring white tofu or anything else that you don’t want to eat because it’s blah – give it the spice treatment.

Another option is taking boring veggies and putting them into a burrito or omelet. 

·Turn a pan on medium heat, spray it liberally with olive oil, and saute (lightly cook) your spinach, onions or other greens.  For the noxious ones like kale, chop them small, removing the stems.  Put a lot of greens in the pan, because greens are mostly water and the volume will shrivel to 20% of what you started with.

·When the shriveling is well along and things are making sizzling noises, turn things over with a spatula, so the warming is equal on both sides.

·Add eggs or egg substitute and when the egg mixture has set, add Daiya or similar brand of non-dairy cheese.  The “cheese” is made of tapioca or something equally innocuous and non-fat, with lots of nice digestible protein.  Keep turning it over so it doesn’t burn.  Add sweet prices!

·Shovel parts of it into tortillas, and make wraps or burritos, or just plunk it on a plate and eat it. 

The cooking removes the bitterness from the bitter greens.

Another option, instead of an egg dish, is to add a small amount of pasta sauce and the non-dairy cheese.  This gives you a “pasta-type” flavor, especially if you add some (not a ton) of parmesan or romano blend cheese on top. 

Bitter Greens

You can dump them in soup or make egg and other saute-veggies in pasta sauce dishes.

The key to taming the taste is to chop them up as small as you can, and give them a good amount of saute time.

For kale and collards:  spray with olive oil, put them in a broiler and get the broiling started.  Then pull them out, throw on some sharp or sweet spices, and finish the broiling.  You get a really good “crunch” with this, although it might not come out perfectly the first time. 

Baking is another great way to tame the bitter taste. 

·You can make a “meatloaf” with veggie-substitute for ground round, plus chopped up kale and collards, and the filler. 

·You can bake fish on a bed of quinoa, brown rice or couscous, with a ton of kale and collards and chard.  [All of these are in 101 Healthy Meals so I assume you know the basic procedure.]

·You can bake any form of protein, including beans, with pasta sauce and get your Lasagna fix with these no-longer-bitter greens.

So now you can see so many different ways to make really yummy meals and side dishes from all kinds of leafy greens and peas.

But what about Brussels sprouts.  I DO understand why it’s not everyone’s fave veg.  It takes more time to cook, yes, it does.  But does it really deserve the horror that my husband treated it to when we first started cooking together?  Nah.

The key to making the Brussels sprouts yummy is to find a way to apply a lot of heat.  Baking works.  You can put it into a baked ensemble and in 30-40 minutes, it is bubbling in its pasta sauce or light patina of olive oil and it’s as docile as a – well, not a baby if you have any experience with them; a more willful and obdurate age doesn’t reoccur until teenagehood – how about docile as you wish your children, spouse and manager were?

You can steam it easily with a microwave.  Put some water in a microwave-safe bowl and set it for 6 minutes.  Add some of that lovely cheese sub and nuke it for another 1.5 - 2 minutes.  Yum. 

You can always steam it in an actual steamer if you have one.   You can also boil sprouts, and then add a 1 minute nuke with cheese sub or Parmesan.  Finally, you can get them half-cooked in the microwave, and then broil them.  Spray them with olive oil, perhaps spices or Parmesan.

ALL of these options are really yummy!

And the Vulcan mind-meld.  If you have spent the past half-century engrossed exclusively in literary fiction or living in your underground bunker, and don’t know what that phrase means, a generous translation would be “without extensive mental manipulation.”  In other words, you don’t have to have your normal thinking reset to love the unlovable veggies; you just have to know how to cook them and your beliefs will be a natural result of your Yum response!

Enjoy!

Want a copy of the basic cookbook this references?  Go to Amazon print or e-books, or your local bookseller.

Victoria C Leo    253-203-6676    victoria@soaringdragon.biz
www.soaringdragon.biz

Facebook group: Healing Minds, Healing Bodies

Blog:  soaringdragoninjapan.blogspot.com

FREE: Extended deadline: Kick Dieting to the Curb: Get and Stay at your Healthy Weight Forever!

Extending my FREE beta class!

Losing weight and staying healthy has never been harder - and you know this.  Junk food is everywhere, employers want us to overwork and never exercise, have hobbies or any fun, and we have kids, cats and parents - not to mention cell phones - that need attending to.

But the reason we don't have what we want is only because we aren't going about it in a comprehensive way.  We CAN make time for the healthy habits that we need to have a joyful and vibrant life, with peace of mind and clothes that fit the healthy size we want to be.  Willpower won't do it, but having a touchstone will.  Buying a bike and not riding it won't, but a movement plan that fits your life as it really exists.  Sleeping for 8 hours and reclaiming your birthright of clear thinking and energy can be yours.  The deep psychic surgery that excises the voices that are keeping you stuck is hard work but you have courage, and you WILL succeed - because you have the best guide in the world, right here, working to make it happen.  It will!

https://my.leadpages.net/page/5720929187397632/

I need Beta testers for my new online class.  You get everything in the actual class - all the videos, links to inexpensive books of tools, all the support that will MAKE IT HAPPEN!

YOU CAN!  

The "fine print" is that if I let you have a $100 class for FREE, you have to make a commitment to FINISH it - no "I'm too busy" stuff.  If you aren't willing to clear your calendar for 2 hours/week to make massive changes in your "problems list" - if you don't really want to let go of the pain and disappointment that you are currently living with, then let me be blunt: don't waste my time.  I will be giving 100% to you and I need a commitment back from you.  Come back when your level of pain has reached the unbearable point and you are ready to commit.  Even though it will be $97 or more by then, if you are willing to commit, then it will work for you.  If you aren't ready to let go of what isn't working, then you aren't ready.  All is well.  You'll know when it's time, because the pain will propel you to the comprehensive solution of never having to diet again. 

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Preventing Dementia and Cognitive Decline, Part 1 More Sleep

The key to getting more sleep is to carefully train your brain to the 8 hours that you need.  If you are currently getting 5 or 6 – or less – then you need to plan your evening so that you are asleep 15 minutes earlier than usual. 

Think of your evening as your prep for a big presentation before a live audience.  You hone your speech.  You prepare notes on cards or pages.  You check the lighting and the sound.  You breathe deeply to reduce nervousness.  You hit the loo 10 minutes before show time.  Well, it’s the same thing with sleeping.  You need to prepare. 

1)      Make sure that you get at least 20 minutes of exercise/movement every day.  It helps “tune” your body to better health on all levels of metabolism and circadian rhythm, as it improves your brain, and especially memory, function.

2)      Make sure that you aren’t eating a heavy dinner less than 3 hours before bedtime.  When I worked in a corporate job, and stayed late at my desk, I had dinner in the office fridge, then came home and had a 100 calorie snack before bed.  That snack stabilized my blood sugar for sleep.  I still do the 100 calorie snack.

3)       Stop thinking about business, politics, doing Facebook, or anything else serious or potentially upsetting (no email!) for at least an hour before bed.

4)      Two hours before sleep time, use Dump the Garbage or a similar tool from Take Back Your Lost Heart or 101 Stress Busters.

5)      Sometime in the evening, HAVE FUN, something that engrosses you and genuinely brings joy – which passively watching TV doesn’t, usually.  101 Stress Busters has lots of ideas. 

6)      If you feel resistance to sleep time rather than joy, take a deep breath or five, and see if you can hear the “I don’t want to go to bed and you can’t make me!” voice.  The more it sounds like a 3-year old, the closer you are to Reality.  This is the part of you that will keep you awake until it gets some fun – and no amount of substitutes (alcohol, sweets, TV, you name it) will really satisfy.

7)      Develop an unvarying Go To Bed routine.  Unvarying is important.  You want your brain to get programmed to wind down as you go through the routine.  I cover this in the Kick Weight Loss to the Curb class and will cover it in my newsletter.

8)      If you have a spouse or partner who snores, insists on watching TV in bed (a VERY bad idea, because it associates the bed with TV, not sleeping, to his/her brain) or in any other way disrupts your sleep, sleep somewhere else.  If they want to sleep with you, then they have to SLEEP in the bedroom and do other things elsewhere.  For the last 3 years, hubby has had to get up at 3:30AM and of course, goes to bed much earlier than I.  So we have slept apart on commute days and together on non-commute days.  If your partner doesn’t love you enough to put your needs ahead of their desires, then you do what you need to do to take care of your health and safeguard your mental acuity. 

9)      If you find your sleep disrupted by trips to the bathroom, stop drinking in the evening.  I can’t drink anything after 4PM myself.  I gathered data for 6 months before I came to the latest I could absorb fluids before I had night-waking troubles.  For most people it’s 3 hours, not 6, so see what it is for your body.

Our bodies change and shift over time, usually gradually – elders have more trouble staying asleep because brains get poorer at releasing enough melatonin, and the over-55 set gets less exercise, for example.  If it’s relatively sudden, first check any changes in medications; have you started or stopped anything?  Then think: are you eating differently or taking/stopping a new supplement?  

Check with your doc or pharmacist (the latter are easier to get time with), to see if there is a known sleep disruption associated with the chemicals involved.  Supplements are less safe than prescribed drugs in the sense that there is no quality or purity control imposed by a government agency focused on our safety, but assuming the pills really are what the label says, the pharmacist can tell you what is known about effects of the supplement.  

And then there are hormones of menopause and perimenopause (starting anytime after age 43, on average), which are known to wreck sleep for a while.  Absent any of these known reasons, sudden sleep changes warrant a medical visit.

Kick Dieting to the Curb: Get and Stay at Your Healthy Weight – Forever!

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