Eat Real Food For Weight Loss

"Let food be your medicine, and medicine your food."  Hippocrates

With a food system and dietary guidelines that promote obesity and actively prevents optimal health by restricting critical nutrients, is it any wonder Americans are struggling? If you're at all concerned about your health, nutrition is paramount, and you’re simply not going to get what you need from a boxed concoction of processed ingredients.
So, first and foremost, you have to realize that a healthy diet equates to fresh whole, preferably organic foods, and foods that have been minimally processed. I advise spending 90 percent of your food budget on whole foods, and only 10 percent (or less) on processed foods. If the food meets the following criteria, it would fall under the designation of "real food," which is the very foundation of good health:

1. It's grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers (organic foods fit this description, but so do some non-organic foods)
2. It's not genetically engineered 
3. It contains no added growth hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs
4. It does not contain any artificial ingredients, including chemical preservatives
5. It is fresh.  I prefer lettuce, kale, and other produce not in plastic bags.  Although they take a bit more prep time, they are cheaper and usually fresher.
6. It did not come from a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO)
7. It is grown with the laws of nature in mind (meaning animals are fed their native diets, not a mix of grains and animal byproducts, and have free-range access to the outdoors)
8. It is grown in a sustainable way (using minimal amounts of water, protecting the soil from burnout, and turning animal wastes into natural fertilizers instead of environmental pollutants)

If you want to stay fit and keep healthy in body, mind and soul you must respect and honor your body by feeding it real food.  Real food is food that is closest to the way that God made it.  It is nutrient dense and thus more satiating than "fake" fast, processed food.  Once you start eating real food you will stop craving so much junk food and your waistline will show it too!   Remember...
 "Your body is the temple of the holy spirit"   1 Corinthians 6:19

Join me and my husband, Dr. Robert A. Schuller on the 15th of each and every month at 6pm Pacific time for "The Call".    During our hour together we explore different topics from a Christian perspective and help pass along great information about body, mind, and soul health.  On October 15th we are going to interview Dr. Daniel Amen.  Dr Amen is a highly sought-after brain specialist, psychiatrist, and author.   To access the call just dial 530-881-1300 The access code is 642848# * Make sure you call at 6pm Pacific time and only on the 15th of each month. 

To contact me email: donna@donnaschuller.com

The Amazing Flexible Brain

"And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man."  Luke 2:52

We are created in the image of God.  We have a body, a mind, and a soul.  It is important that we pay close attention to our health in all three areas. 

Over the last few decades, neuroscientists have learned that your brain has the amazing ability to grow and change at any point in your lifetime. This breakthrough has opened the door to myriad possibilities, from increasing intelligence and memory in daily life to recovering from traumatic injuries. 

I find this really interesting because it pertains to exercising in every way.  New physical tasks help your brain grow as well as emotional breakthroughs and spiritual "ah ha's" that you act on and explore.   Every time you learn a new dance move or a new routine in your fitness class, that is stretching your brain to grow.  When you take the stairway instead of the elevator, not only do you reap the physical benefits but your brain has to tell you to pick up your feet.   Read on to find out more.

Your brain has the innate ability to physically change itself when faced with new, challenging experiences. This ability is called neuroplasticity.

Your brain's billions of neurons —its cellular building blocks—interact with each other in complex ways. Signals travel from one neuron to another down intricate neural pathways whose structures determine your thoughts, impulses, emotions, insights, and more.

As our brains age through childhood, these neural pathways change: less-used pathways are pruned away while pathways that you use regularly grow stronger. Each task relies on a different neural pathway.

Neuroplasticity is your brain's ability to create neural pathways and reshape existing ones—even as an adult. Your brain makes these small changes naturally throughout your lifetime. But when neuroplasticity's potential is thoughtfully and methodically explored, this physical reorganization can make your brain faster and more efficient at performing all manner of tasks—no matter how large or small they may be.

 

Neuroplasticity suggests that anyone can improve their brain, no matter what their age or background. A growing body of research adds more credence to this concept every day.

Recently, Dr. Susanne Jaeggi from the University of Michigan found that young adults improved fluid intelligence performance after training with a working memory task called dual n-back (Jaeggi, et al., 2008). Fluid intelligence is the type of dynamic problem-solving that you use when encountering new challenges—it's what most people mean by "intelligence."

A study of over 2,000 elderly adults in 2002 suggests that even older brains have plenty of room to improve and learn. (Ball, et al., 2002). After 10 hours of training over the

course of six weeks, elderly participants gained skills that transferred to real-world abilities —they experienced fewer declines in their ability to perform basic daily activities.

And finally, Lumos Labs collaborated with Stanford and San Francisco State University researchers to publish a groundbreaking study showing that healthy adults benefit from web-based cognitive training (Hardy et al., 2011). Participants in this peer-reviewed controlled trial saw 20% improvements in visual attention and 10% improvements in working memory.

You, too, could achieve amazing improvements. But not every experience can rewire your brain for the better: in order to fully harness the power of neuroplasticity, you need to challenge your brain with training that's novel, adaptive, and complete.  This goes for the training you do physically, emotionally, and spiritually.   Don't get stuck in a rut but continue to learn new and different things.

This complex formula explains why some popular games

such as Sudoku and crosswords don't increase intelligence—the more you play these games, the more you retrace overlearned pathways in your brain. You need carefully calibrated challenges to really strengthen and stretch your brain.

Novelty forces your brain to change

Novel challenges present unexpected obstacles, forcing your brain to work in new ways. When your brain encounters these new challenges, it must remodel its existing circuitry and find new pathways for information processing.

That's because the brain assigns special neural pathways for each type of task. Just as you use different muscle groups for running and swimming, so you use different neural circuitry for reading and watching a movie. Familiar tasks simply reactivate existing circuitry—which can keep your brain active, but won't change or improve it in fundamental ways.

Adaptivity keeps your brain challenged

You have a unique set of cognitive strengths and weaknesses. A task that's easy for someone else may be a challenge to you, and vice versa.

In order to improve, you need tasks appropriate for your brain's ever-changing ability levels. As your brain becomes stronger, it's able to handle tougher challenges. This response to challenges is a key part of neural growth, and you need challenges that adapt quickly enough to push you.

Imagine watching an action movie. You need to process information quickly to understand how the plot evolves. You need to pay sharp attention or you'll miss key details and dialogue. You need to store and manipulate information in your working memory throughout the movie to understand how all of it ties together.

Even the simplest tasks require a sophisticated choreography of neural activity. That's why it's important to get the kind of training that exercises a wide variety of skills—and improves abilities you need to successfully navigate your daily life.

Brain training has the potential to change lives

Neuroplasticity can have wide-ranging applications if properly and carefully explored. Researchers have used brain training to rehabilitate patients with brain trauma, chemofog, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and more. But healthy people have also used brain training to sharpen their daily lives and ward off cognitive decline. You, too, can harness the power of neuroplasticity to remember more, think faster, and achieve your full potential in every aspect of life.  This means body, mind, and soul.  The benefits are endless.    source

"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind."  Romans 12:2

Remember The Call on the 15th of each month at 6pm Pacific time.  Join my husband and I when we interview Dr. Daniel Amen on October 15, 2013.  All you need is a phone.  At 6pm California time dial:  530-881-1300 and when prompted enter: 642848#
 Dr. Amen is a world re-known brain specialist so we will ask him all about the latest in brain health.     Click here to read more about him.  Contact me for more information: donna@donnaschuller.com

8 Surprising Effects of Obesity

This booklet was created by our daughter, Christina , beachbabefitness.com when she was in the first grade

 

More than 36 percent of Americans are now considered obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An additional 34 percent are considered overweight. 

These statistics are quoted so often that many people may no longer find them surprising. Yet what may still be surprising is how far the effects of obesity reach beyond clothing size and cardiovascular risks. In addition to health, it can also impact other aspects of your life, including family relationships and income.

Read on to learn about seven ways carrying those extra pounds may be influencing the way you live.

"Teach a child in the way he (or she) should go and when they are old they will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

 

More Migraines

A new study published in the journal Neurology revealed what a real headache carrying extra weight can be. Johns Hopkins researchers surveyed nearly 4,000 people to find that the higher their body mass index, the greater their chances were of having episodic migraines. Those who were obese were 81 percent more likely to experience at least 14 migraine headaches each month compared to people who were a healthy weight. Obese women over the age of 50 suffered from chronic headaches the most.

More Cancer

The National Cancer Institute associates 34,000 new cases of cancer in men and 50,000 in women each year with obesity.

Right now the link between excess weight and cancer is purely circumstantial and not necessarily cause-and-effect, but experts have floated some theories as to why more body fat tracks with higher rates of cancer.

"It could be that excess fat cells increase hormonal activity or they increase growth factors that lead to tumor growth," said Dr. Raul Seballos, vice chairman of preventive medicine at the Cleveland Clinic.

Obese people are at higher risk for all cancers, Seballos said. They are often diagnosed in later stages of cancer than thinner people and are more likely to die from the disease. Some emerging data looking at weight-loss surgery patients suggests that some of this risk can be diminished by losing weight.

Infertility Increases

Overweight women have a harder time getting pregnant. One Indian study of 300 morbidly obese women found that over 90 percent of them developed polycystic ovarian disease, a condition associated with infertility, over a three-year period.

As with cancer, the association between obesity and infertility isn't entirely clear.

"Obesity is an inflammatory state and that alone might decrease fertility," noted Dr. Marc Bessler, director of the Center for Weight Loss and Metabolic Surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital at Columbia University Medical Center. "It may also be the result of hormone changes produced by the fatty tissue."

Bessler said that many of his heavier patients experienced difficulty getting pregnant. And many infertility clinics don't accept female patients with high body mass indexes given their diminished chances of conceiving. However, Bessler said some of his patients become pregnant just months after weight-loss surgery once they had dropped a few pounds.

Premature Birth Risk

For heavier women who do get pregnant, the worries aren't over. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that obesity increases a woman's chance of having a pre-term baby, especially when her body mass index is 35 or higher. The study's authors speculate that having too much fat may inflame and weaken the uterine and cervical membranes. Whatever the reason, it can have devastating effects. Premature birth is the leading cause of infant death and long-term disabilities.

Less Shuteye

A young child needs 10 hours of sleep but did you know that ideally we need 8 or 9?

 

 

Sleep and excess weight do not make good bedfellows. Nearly 80 percent of older, obese Americans report having problems with sleep, a recent American Sleep Foundation survey found.

Poor sleep contributes to a host of diseases including diabetes, heart disease and, ironically, obesity itself. Numerous studies link short sleep to expanding waistlines, including the Harvard Nurses' Study, which found that those who slumbered less than five hours a night were 15 percent more likely to gain weight than those who enjoyed at least seven hours of sleep.

Dr. Donald Hensrud, a nutritionist and preventive medicine expert in the department of endocrinology, diabetes, metabolism and nutrition at the Mayo Clinic, said one of the most immediate health dangers for many obese people is sleep apnea, a condition in which a person gasps or stops breathing momentarily while asleep.

"Sleep apnea can be caused by increased fat around the neck area that presses down and closes off the soft tissues of the airways while a person is lying down, especially on his back," Hensrud said. "This means the person does not get good quality sleep, has less oxygen in the blood stream, and the heart has to work harder."

Tough Love

Though fat people are often the butt of the joke, obesity stigma is no laughing matter.

A Yale study found that weight is the number one reason people are bullied at any age and those who are bullied have lower self-esteem, higher levels of depression and increased risk of suicide.

The main source of ridicule, according to the Yale researchers: Loved ones.

"More than 40 percent of children who seek treatment for weight loss say they have been bullied or teased by a family member," said the study's lead author, Rebecca Puhl. "When we asked obese women who stigmatized them the most, 72 percent said it was someone in their family."

Puhl said discussions with loved ones about their burgeoning weight often come across as judgmental and derogatory, even when intentions are good. However, offering support and encouragement is the most effective approach to help someone struggling to drop off pounds.

Medical Gap

The number two source of stigma, after loved ones?

Puhl said her studies have found that 67 percent of overweight men and women report being shamed or bullied in the doctor's office. And 50 percent of doctors found that fat patients were "awkward, ugly, weak-willed and unlikely to comply with treatment" while 24 percent of nurses said they were repulsed by their obese patients.

A negative reception from a healthcare provider is especially detrimental to obese people, Puhl stressed, because they already contend with a greater number of health problems than average.

"Besides jeopardizing discussions between patients and healthcare providers, someone who is obese is more likely to avoid the doctor altogether even when they have a problem," she said.

However Puhl noted that the knife cuts both ways. Her studies reveal that people are less apt to follow doctor's orders and more likely to switch to a new provider if their physician is overweight. source

 Obese or not, God loves everyone.  By posting this article it is not my intention to judge.   I do believe that God wants us to honor our bodies by providing it with proper nutrition and regular exercise;  to honor our minds by consciously imputing into our brains messages of hope;  to fill our soul by embracing and practicing a faith that encourages us to have faith and a positive outlook on life no matter what our trials;  to pass-on a legacy of good habits to our children, our grandchildren, our friends and anyone that we have influence on.

God is blessing you so accept the blessings and make your life all it can be by taking care of your body, your mind, and your soul.  

Join us on Sunday, September 15th at 6pm Pacific time for "The Call."  Discover how to navigate through change and learn more about yourself, others, and God.  It's simple.  Just pick up a telephone and dial:  530-881-1300.  When asked enter this code:  642848#   This month we are interviewing our youngest daughter (the artist featured above) Christina Sinclair of beachbabefitness.com  We will ask her about her recommended health habits and also what it was like growing up with a famous grandfather and father.    We will also give you an update on the health of Dr. R.H. Schuller.

 If you can't make it this month then join us on the 15th if any and every month,  same time, same place...via telephone.

The Golden Rule

 "Do for others as you would like for them to do to/for you."  These are words from Jesus which can be found in Matthew 7:12. Even in the secular world this passage is referred to as "The Golden Rule."
When you live by The Golden Rule life is more rewarding, more fulfilling, better.  You will also have much greater health in body, mind, and soul.

I couldn't resist including this comic because I have actually heard people say and believe the above proclamation.   The truth is, there are really a lot of super nice, generous, and caring people all around if you keep your eyes open and expect good things to happen to and for you.  Generous and caring people; one's who can "make your day" aren't always the ones who "have the gold".

My husband Robert and I have been in the process of moving for what seems like months!  The whole process started when we sold our home and had to be out by August 6, 2013.   I think it took us a good six weeks to sort, give-away, sale, or throw-away twenty-nine plus years worth of "stuff."   Then we got to the other end and we started unpacking and reorganizing in our very nice yet much smaller space.
 If you've moved recently then you might remember that hours melt into days and days melt into a week or more as you continue to unpack and put away the kitchen, the living room, the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the garage, etc.   All the while trying to keep some sort of work ethic going in your business and not doing a very good job of it!   Forget preparing meals...it's eat when you remember to and make sure it's as healthy as you can find at the time. 

Imagine our surprise when the first evening in our new place one of our neighbors, a young man named Jeff, came by to ask if we would like to come over to his apartment for dinner.  It was the Saturday of Labor Day weekend and he had cooked up a feast which included several types of homemade tacos (one of my favorite foods).  It was amazing timing and of course we said, "yes"!

 During the first week of our stay in what has now become our new home, we have met many nice people who have done several wonderful things for us.   The kindnesses have made this whole process a lot easier and it has reminded me to always expect the best in people and to be surprised when I get something different.  Never the other way around.   When you live with this attitude your body, mind, and spirit will flourish.  You will also attract more serendipitous incidents and blessings while you also treat others in the way that you would like to be treated.


"Love your neighbor as yourself." This is the second commandment found in Matthew 22:39


Our neighbor Jeff showed us love our first night in our new place.  And you know what?  I don't think he even knew how much his invitation meant to us.  He offered it like it was in his nature.  That's the best kind of offer ever, one that comes from a good heart.  We are very grateful.
 Remember to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

*Remember to join us for our monthly "The Call" coming up on Sunday, September 15th at 6pm Pacific Time.  All you need is a phone.  Call this number:  530-881-1300 When asked key in 642848#  We will be interviewing Christina Sinclair of Beach Babe Fitness who happens to be our youngest daughter.  She will give us some of the latest fitness tips plus we will ask her what it was like growing-up Schuller.   We will also update you regarding my father-in-law's health.

Crystal Cathedral Founder Rev. Robert H. Schuller Undergoing Cancer Treatment « CBS Los Angeles

 Please pray for my father-in-law's comfort in body, mind, and spirit during this difficult time. 



Crystal Cathedral Founder Rev. Robert H. Schuller Undergoing Cancer Treatment « CBS Los Angeles

  osangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/09/04/crystal-cathedral-founder-rev-robert-schuller-undergoing-cancer-treatment/

Please plan on joining my husband and I on the 15th of every month at 6pm Pacific time.  We host "The Call" which is a small part of our church with no walls global ministry.  Each month we host a special guest who specializes in either body, mind, or soul health.   To access The Call it's easy.  Simply dial 530-881-1300 and when asked key-in 642848# at 6pm PDT.   Pass this information along to anyone you know who could use some mid-month encouragement.