Living Dharma

2011-05-06T16:16:00.000-07:00

OK, it has been a while, but I have been writing and working on a bunch of tasty recipes.

Before heading to the Integrative Nutrition and Health Conference in San Francisco this weekend, I got a trip to the Grand Canyon under my belt.

Quite a workout hiking into and out of the Canyon.

The trails are amazing - steep, and are glorious view no matter which way you turned.

I'll post after the conference.

Long time

2010-11-03T14:00:00.001-07:00

Its been awhile. Been focused on practice, work, and classes. Family fun is also worked in. Conflict free is the way to be!

Holistic Dharma

2010-08-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

My diet and life continues to change for the better since my course work in holisitic nutrition has begun. This is clearly evident to me in all areas of my life. There is room for growth, but this is now a pleasant journey of living and experiencing the principles of living what I have termed holisitic dharma.

Holisitic dharma in terms of nutrition begins with defining health as was covered in Week One of the Holitic nutrition course. The aspiration of optimal maintainence, function, growth of my body, mind and spirit provided a firm foundation to implement the health information. Being able to investigate and provide nutritional data for my self, family , and clients has led to everyone being able to make informed decisions regarding the nutritional content of our food, our food choice impact to society and our individual health.

Areas of focus I wanted to impact for my diet over the past twelve weeks included:
minimizing processed sugar, eating adequate protein, maintaining 2 vegetables for each lunch and dinner, having 3 fruits per day, developing recipes & natural food flavor enhancement, and finally developing healthy meal planning tools.

My food diary and lean body mass measurements aided with recognizing whether I was on/off target for the areas of focus. My lowered weight, increased stamina, improved complexion, and enhanced sense of well-being attest to the overall postive effects of following the holistic dharma.
As the path of living my dharma is to help share nutritional lifestyle information with my family and community, it was exciting to see the information became useful tools to help others improve their own health.

As I continue this path, I look forward to making efforts with recipe development and meal planning in order to continue my practice and growth as a holistic nutritionist.

10 weeks

2010-08-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

From week one to week ten my meals has been fairly consistent with the exception of:
* Increased fruits - this is likely due to eating seasonally

* increased protein, electrolyte and vegetable juice drinks. - I increased my yoga and tai chi
form practice. The increased efforts required I ensure proper hydration and recovery.

* While I have reduced my starchy carb portions /day, i have added a few more vegetables
regularly - eggplant, and artichokes stood out on my food diary comparison.

The 10 foods include protein shakes (every other day), veggie/fruit juice (5-6 days/week for past 8 weeks), electrolyte drink(5 days/week for past month); eggplant, avocado, artichoke, blueberries, pears, peaches, and nectarines have been eaten more frequently. The vegetables have been consumed weekly, and the fruit two-three times per week. All amounts are more than I had consistenly consumed prior to the week one of class. The consistency of receiving this nutrtient rich foods has made a positive difference in my energy, weight, and skin. With my increased energy I am particpating in a few more activites so I sleep really well, and am energized for each day. My weight has dropped by 8 lbs, and my skin is clear and glowing!! These benefits have contributed to my good to excellent moods over the past 10 weeks.

The analysis of the major vitamins & minerals from 10 of the food and beverages indicate I am receiving adequate supplies of all major vitamins. I included some mineral information as I was pleanstly surprised at the more than adequate nutrition I have been receiving since using the information in this course.

Vitamin A - Protein shakes (50% RDA, 2500IU), Veggie/fruit Juices (Carrots), peaches

Vitamin C - Protein shakes (433% RDA, 260 mg), veggie/fruit juice(apple, peach)

Vitamin K - Electrolyte drink(7% RDA), eggplant, avocado

Vitamin D - Protein shake (200% RDA) Sodium - Veggie/fruit juice (celery, lettuce), electrolyte drink( 1%RDA)

Potassium - Veggie/fruit juice (cucumber), eggplant, nectarines

Calcium - Protein shakes

Copper - eggplant, electrolyte drink

Manganese - eggplant, blueberries

Vitamin B - pears, avocado

Antioxidants - Blueberries, pears, nectarines

Fiber - Mother Nature's Cure for Modern Ills

2010-07-14T19:18:00.000-07:00

Fiber to the Rescue
Its been over a year and a half since I began my current gig as a Wellness Coach. I continue to learn about health - wellness, illness and nutrition. My studies of Taoist nutrition, and western science based nutrition all point to basic facts that are startling simple and true. In short, eat your vegetables; and the classic - eat like a pauper.
Five fiber facts that I will share this sixth week of my nutrition course -

1. Mother Nature provides us with prepackaged foods with an abundance of fiber. Real, whole foods are the best source . Beans, oatmeal, citrus and strawberries are great soluble fiber foods. Whole grains, carrots, beets are good insoluble fiber foods. I am sure to include beans as part of my vegetarian diet. I am reminded on the classic line quoted above {eat like a pauper} when I create a menu featuring beans as the main dish.

2. Fiber rich foods help combat the chronic illness' that befall modern man. Fiber aids in regulating blood sugar, reducing Chronic Heart disease conditions, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity. As a wellness coach, I have bencome more aware of the correlation between low fiber diets and the increased occurence of these illness states. Diet review is apart of our wellness program and I set a goal of 30g of fiber daily for all participants. Developing methods and lifestyle changes to implement the increased fiber consumption can be challenging, but is doable with set goals beginning with 2 vegetables /meal and beans twice a week.

3. Fiber helps the body eliminate toxins and cellular waste. This helps reduce inflammation in the body. Without the effective elimination of toxins and waste, the immune system becomes burdened. This burden will manifest as either a suppression of the immune system, or an overtaxing of the immune system. Increased illness, and lack of energy are the early signs of a taxed immune system.

4. Fiber feeds good bacteria for the GI system. A lack of good bacteria allows toxins and undigested proteins to flourish and move from the GI to the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream autoimmune diseases and food allergies/intolerances can flourish.

After two major surgeries, the low fiber in my diet allowed undigested proteins to run rampant in my blood stream and food allergies seemed to come from nowhere. My morning fruit, daily salad and vegetable with dinner was not enough to support thge vibrant health my body and mind craved. I began increasing the amounts of fruits and vegetables with each meal. By revamping my diet I was able to boost my immunity, regain health, and provide solutions for myself in a practical manner.

5. My surgeries were for benign tumors. I wondered why it did not progress to cancer. My abnormal cell growth was mediated by an immune system response (that may be another post), cancer begins with abnormal cell growth that leads to cancerous cell formation. The billion dollar question is to how that leap is made.
Estrogen type cancers have been shown to start from elevated levels of estrogen in the bloodstream. Elevated estrogen is due to lack of bile elimination of estrogen. The bile elimination is not complete due to lack of fiber to support the bile process. Breast cancer, ovarian cancer, uterine and vaginal cancer are all related to elevated estrogen levels. Increasing fiber consumption to the new goal of 40g/day will reduce the risk of developing cancer.

Increased fiber supports many body systems - the cardiovascular, GI, and immune systems are all dependent on fiber rich foods to function optimally. The beauty of nature has given us the foods for our fiber needs in abundance.

5 Facts about Protein

2010-07-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

Vegetarian Protein, Fitness Activities, & Energy

While in college I took classes in Feldenkreis, weight training and jogging as electives to balance my engineering studies. The Feldenkreis taught me about movement, thought and conditioned responses, the weight training taught me about the various muscle groups and methods to develop and isolate the groups, and jogging was a great cardiovascular routine.

Around this time my protein interest was on the climb. I did not think of my diet as a college student, and was often happy to have funds for tacos and a margarita post class. But after a semester with the various movement classes, I realised I needed to fuel myself better to enjoy and excel at my various fitness classes.

While many friends were vegetarians, I ate meat and did not consider eating vegetarian. I equated having no meat protein in a diet to not having energy.
Now I realize that the times I tried a vegetarian diet, I had eaten a hefty portion of brown rice. Brow Rice has high levels of trytophan, the sleep inducing hormone often associated with te Thanksgiving Turkey.

Flash Forward to today, I am 11 months into a vegetarian diet. My fitness routine has evolved to Yoga, circular strenght training, and tennis.

5 Interesting Protein facts I have discovered during my journey are:

1. Veggies are great protein source - Broccoli is surprising source.
2. You do not need to combine foods to ensure adequate protein is consumed while on a vegetarian diet.
3. Eat a variety of vegetables to ensure all essential amino acids are present daily.
4. Plant based based protein is digested and assimialted better than meat based protein.
5. Activity levels & weight loss goals help to determine the amount of protein an individual requires.

The list of vegetarian athletes is long. The list provided by John Robbins in The Food Revolution lists a few of my favorites:
Surya Bonaly - Olympic Figure skating champion
Desmond Howard - NFL player (helped define the return man, crushed my beloved
Patriots, Heisman trophy winner
Dan Milman - world champion gymnast
Martina Navratilova - champion tennis player
Bill Pearl - four-time Mr. Universe
Dave Scott - six time Ironman triathlon winner

The True Thievery Corporation

2010-06-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Thievery Corporation is a band of musicians who produce great music from the '00 decade. The core group is a duo who write and produce the songs, and they lead a carousel of other guest vocalist and musicians to fill the band roles and create the sound. Anyone would be hard pressed to identify the members of Thievery Corporation, or the hired artists who work with the band.

My key learning from the movie Food Inc. was that there is no single person that can be identified as the culprit in the industrial machine that has taken over the american/global food matrix. The Food Corps. are a few global corporations that are responsible for defining the standards and distributing the food (writing and producing), and leading small farms (guest musicians) to follow their rules and contribute the food products (songs) to their standards.

In addition to this learning I was shocked by the lack of protection our government provides between the individual and corporation. To quote an article from the Huffington Post this week entitled Protecting our governments from corporate influence,
" The Government agencies are under the influence of corporations they should regulate".

This combined Goverenment and Corporate Force is the True Thievery Corporation. These Thieves are ransacking the individual health and well-being.

We are witness to the destructive force of corporation and goverenment rules and standards to the food industry in Food Inc. The repurcussions to an individual health and well being are clearly shown in the movie Food Inc.

In the movie a family of four ate meals in the car as the parents had to drive to work. Work was crucial to pay for medications to treat the fathers diabetes.
Healthy food & meals were not an option due to cost, and preparation time. This viscious cycle is completed by the family being able to afford non-healthy corporate fast food in their car. The low cost, nutrient poor food does not support recovery from chronic conditions such as diabetes. So the underlying cause of diabetes is not addressed and the cycle of work for money, use money for meds and fast food, back to work for money for meds is not broken.

Protecting the individual within the current political structure is clearly impossible. Shown in the film, It has taken over 6 years of a young mother whose 3 year old died from E. Coli tainted meat to pass a simple law protecting the consumer from lax corporate standards.

The individual must recognize and use the force of free will. Also one should recognize and respond appropriately to their own inner guides to make better food choices. The daughters request for fruits and vegetables should have been heeded. She was the inner guide for the family at that point. The families concern for the diabetic condition may be a driving force for the recognization that lifestyle changes are required to reduce the medications and build better health with whole foods .

Food Inc was an eye-opening movie on many fronts, but the glimpse of the True Thievery Corporation was a score for this individual living dharma.

Week 1 final

2010-06-10T16:16:00.001-07:00

Last shot, wanted to show coffee and one of the protein supplements I use. If you look close you will see a bag of chips. Snacking is one area I will be cutting back on..also the coffee.. In the past I could drop it more easily than now. Present awareness should put the morning ritual in its place.

Week 1 cont.

2010-06-10T16:09:00.001-07:00

Beans and quinoa are protein sources. I'n gluten free. (Really wheat free) so I buy rice and corn pasta.

Week 1

2010-06-10T16:02:00.001-07:00

A random fridge pic. I didn't shop this week. From the looks dairy, fruit and the veggies staples are present - tomatoes, berries, yogurt, cheese...

Living Dharma

2010-06-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog, Living Dharma.

My spiritual name of Dharmaparaa was revealed to me last year, and the meaning contains information on my past, future, and how to live NOW.

Health and Wellness has been a passion of mine for many years. After a college, and corporate life - I set out to create and live a full life. While not easy and not always fun, it has been an amazing journey.

Currently I am an energy healer, massage therapist & wellness coach. I am completing additional certification in Holisitc Nutrition and will use this site to post course assignments .